Why is Linux Email Stuck in the 90s?

“Email, love it or loathe it, there’s no getting away from it.
On an average day I process hundreds of emails, but haven’t yet
found an open source mail user agent (MUA) that I really like. Ten
years ago this wasn’t surprising, but today? Why aren’t open source
mailers keeping up with the rest of the Linux desktop, and being
blown away by Gmail?

“In the 14 years I’ve used Linux, I’ve tried pretty much every
mailer. Mutt, Pine, Alpine, Sylpheed, and the list goes on. In the
last year, I’ve checked in with SpiceBird, Thunderbird, Evolution,
KMail, and Claws (formerly Sylpheed-Claws, the bleeding edge of
Sylpheed). They’re all solid mailers, but it’s like time stopped
somewhere around 2002 feature-wise. None of the open source mail
clients have truly stepped up to the plate with anything new.

“You can’t say the same thing about other applications. Firefox
has improved by leaps and bounds. OpenOffice.org is far better
today (though still clunky) than it was just five years ago. Media
players have improved by a wide margin — Banshee is every bit as
good as iTunes (that may be damning with faint praise), and
Rhythmbox and Amarok have also kept pace with user needs over the
years”

Complete
Story