I've been using gmail for a couple of months now, & I LOVE the interface for threaded message conversations. Does anyone know of a Gnu/linux project which is cloning/copying/independently coming up with the same idea for an email client interface?

I'd really love to be able to keep track of all my email conversations as easily as I can with Gmail.

Cheers,

Rorzer

If you just want threaded messages, why not use thunderbird?
http://www.mozilla.org

Thanks David, I've just been playing with thunderbird & it's threading, but it doesn't really compare to gmail's threaded conversations. The ability to see an entire conversation you've had with someone, and print it out, from one message pane is marvellous. Have you tried gmail? I'd be happy to send you one of my invites if you'd like to experiment with it's conversation metaphor.

Surely it's only a matter of time before someone in the FOSS world decides to emulate gmail. Many of my friends have stopped using other email clients altogether because gmail's conversation metaphor is so intuitive and easy to keep track of.

Have you heard of Mutt?

Yes I have, but I'm really after a GUI client.

Is there a particular feature of mutt that you can describe that may be of help to me? I'm aware of how frustrating non-descriptive pleas for help can be on these user communities, but non-descriptive answers are equally useful.

A particular feature of Mutt that would be helpful to you? Yes. It threads messages. I believe that's what you're looking for.

The email clients that get usually recommended are, in descending order of popularity, Thunderbird, Mutt, Evolution, Kmail, sylpheed-claws. Once you know their names, you should have no trouble finding information about them.

Thanks Dugan, I've been using linux for about 5 years now, & I'm familiar with all of these mail clients and their traditional threading ability.

I think I've made the mistake of assuming that most people are familiar with gmail's interface, and in doing so failed to communicate exactly what I'm after.

When I open my gmail inbox, rather than a list of individual messages, or a nested hierarchy of traditional threads, I see a list of 'conversations'. Clicking on the subject of the conversation gives me a concatenated thread of messages.

Now, I could achieve nearly the same functionality in thunderbird by setting the sent mail box to the inbox for that account, or by bcc-ing myself on all emails. The key difference is that gmail gives you the ability to open all messages in the thread in one message pane, which allows me to refer back to previous parts of our correspondence, whether or not my pen-pal and I quote our messages verbatim. It also allows me to print the whole thread in one block, for hard copy archives.

Hope I've done a better job of making myself understood here.

Thanks again,

Rory

Hmm... I've never used it, but Opera's email client seems to be one to try. Its system of labels and filters appears very similar to gmail's.

If Opera's mailer isn't what you want either, then we can conclude that the offline mailer you're looking for does not (yet) exist.

Don't think it would be that hard to modify an existing client into one that does this, and it does sound like a worthwhile feature... suggest it maybe to someone working on a project? It sounds worthwhile to me, I might take a crack at it myself during my upcoming month off school.

Thanks Dugan, I'm downloading it now with all my 56k lightning speed!

I'll let you know how it goes.

Wow, you gotta love the open source community!

I'm not a coder, & I'm a volunteer worker so I can't put up a bounty or anything, but I can offer feedback, and gmail invites for whoever wants to work on something like this

Is there a particular client you'd prefer to work on? I mainly use evolution because it integrates nicely with my palm vx, but if you've got a particular preference, I'll email the project team too.

Sorry Dugan, tried Opera.

It still doesn't group messages by conversation, including replies sent by myself.

I've achieved a level of that in kmail by moving my sent items in my inbox and it works but you can't configure it so that it does it automatically.

You can't compare gmail to anything. Gmail's web interface single handedly beats every single mail program in existence on any platform. The conversation view is the greatest thign to happen to email.

For example, if you are on a mailing list, and you send a message, adn someone replies, it shows up in the same "conversation"

Every time someone replies it gets added to the bottom of the conversation, and every single time you reply it also gets added to the conversation. It also lets you view every single email in that conversation in one large email so you can print the conversation out.

Very much like this forum. I haven't found a client that works the same as Gmail.

only Apple's mail comes close but doesn't quite hit it.