Penguin
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Mozilla is not only a great WebBrowser, it is also a great MailClient. Trust me on that one.

I have found MozillaMail to be a pathetically buggy MailClient especially when using multiple IMAP accounts on different servers. I would recommend PINE

I have found MozillaMail to be a perfectly stable MailClient, even when using multiple IMAP accounts on different servers. I have also been using it longer than MattBrown for this purpose. The only times I have had any issues with MozillaMail is when trying to force its folder hierarchy to show subfolders of INBOX to be at the same level. Personally I don't care about this, but MattBrown seems to think that a MailClient is only useful if it shows subfolders of INBOX at the same level as INBOX.

Note that this is arguably a bug in MozillaMail (not supporting the NAMESPACE extension to IMAP4 correctly), however in itself it is not a fatal bug. Some IMAP servers (recent versions of Cyrus for example) can do server-side namespace alteration, which MattBrown is used to.

I would like to point out to MattBrown that 'pathetically buggy' is fairly strong language to describe a MailClient that works 100% fine for other people, who have only had issues with it when trying to resolve a purely cosmetic issue.

While it is true that I have had issues with MozillaMail and CourierImap? displaying incorrect folder hierarchies my problems with MozillaMail have extended well beyond this. The following problems are some of the worst I have experienced with Mozilla and "standard" IMAP configurations. And no I don't run the latest beta versions.

  • Crashing when the compose button is clicked
  • Refusing to talk to the IMAP server until MozillaMail is shutdown and restarted.
  • MattBrown

I've seen the second problem you describe, when I am using an IMAP server off a dynamic IP: eg my server at home. If it changes IP, mozilla sometimes requires a restart. If you are using SSL, mozilla always requires a restart. This isn't neccesarily a mozilla problem. It could perhaps handle it better, however dynamic IPs are not designed for running services off them. If you want a reliable mail server, get a static IP or host your mail on a machine with a static IP.

The former one does look like a bug, however I've seen issues like it relating to incorrect XUL. Try removing your .mozilla directory ( you did do this when you upgraded last, like the upgrade notes in Mozilla tell you to, right?) and reloading.

I used MozillaMail on my LAN at home and still had problems, so I don't believe that dynamic IP's are the problem.

I have removed my .mozilla directory countless times due to being unable to start mozilla, this only adds to my frustrations with MozillaMail.

Calm it down.