One of the steps that I am attempting to make to become more self hosted is +hosting my own email. Email seems like its a bit of a harder one, but I plan to +transition my gmail over to my own email. Part of this process, however, +requires that I choose how I will be interfacing with this email server.
+ +Being that I tend to be more interested in the whole minimalism meme, I went +with no web GUI and am instead choosing to use an email client. I've wanted to +transition to one for a while, but I couldn't find anything that really suited +me needs. Mutt or neomutt was the most promising, but its very high barrier to +entry really put me off from it. Thunderbird is made by mozilla, and quite a +few others like mailspring are electron apps. A program being an electron app +in of itself doesn't make it not worth using, however I really would rather have +something a bit more versatile than what most electron apps are. This is where +aerc comes in.
+ +I prefer terminal programs for a variety of reasons. They run over ssh, one +good terminal emulator means all programs should work and run decent in X11, +tend to be lighter on system resources, and personally I like the look of a +well made TUI. Aerc is one such terminal program, but for email. It uses plain +text configuration, sane defaults, and comes with a setup wizard to add your +email and auto detect settings for common services. It really was the best +"just works" tool I've found so far, in terms of email. The program was tiny +and is in the official Gentoo repositories. All key bindings can be changed, +and comes with vi-like bindings by default. It provides hooks for +automation of certain tasks. It auto refreshes for emails. It'll even use pass +and external contacts programs! It really is everything I wanted from a email +client. Feature packed, yet versatile.
+ +Mine is setup to use pass, pull from my gmail, and with a few extra vim like +key bindings that are more intuitive to me. You can give it a shot +here. +Its just part of my dotfiles repo. Check you the +site for aerc, along with a video showing +it off.
+ +Thats really it, hope I could help you find a new email client!
+ +