The latest release of Geary (3.32) has many new features and it is much faster now as well. But the highlight is that Geary now follows the GNOME release schedule and also integrates fully with the GNOME Desktop, including Online Accounts Integration. Needless to say it follows HIG and unlike Thunderbird, Geary doesn’t look foreign on the system.
Given the raft of features and seamless integration, Geary should be considered as being the default mail app for Ubuntu 19.10. Imagine a person adding his mail account in Online Accounts and in a toggle, his/her mail can be added as well. Without having to setup anything else again! What do you guys think?
How does it compare to the current mail client, Thunderbird?
It would be interesting to see a table of features comparing each. Users who still use local mail clients are often quite wedded to the one they use and that may be because it has features others do not. Clearly if a default changes, then existing users should not be affected, but if new users try out 19.10 with some new client, and it’s missing standard features from Thunderbird, they may not be happy with the choice we made.
I’m not a regular Thunderbird user so I can’t say much on that front, maybe others can chime in here. As for Geary, it also supports nearly every email account under the Sun. It has all the standard features like conversation view, custom signatures, rich html, Labels, background notifications, badges, search and so on. It also integrates with the Contacts app and pulls in contact pictures.
I used Geary a lot and it is def. a fast and reliable e-mail client. Currently I use Thunderbird though, since I dropped Google Account authenticated apps that don’t work with oauth (which is the case for Geary until 3.32, now I am just too lazy to switch back again )
It is a native gtk3 app which follows the gnome hig, which is a big plus compared to thunderbird. As @uncertainquark already said it now also works with gnome online accounts, since 3.32.
But thunderbird as much more “features” than geary, which does not certainly be a plus, but it could be a plus if you prefer many features like a whole extension universe For me that is not a plus.
But thunderbird is also rock solid, never crashes and has a bigger developer base than geary. That would be a plus for me.
Thunderbird plans an UI-overhaul in the next releases as fas as I know. So maybe the “UI-advantage” Geary has would be irrelevant/not existent any more then.
Adding further, I believe that the default system should be tightly integrated. Geary allows for that while retaining most common features of Thunderbird or any mail client. Those who need Thunderbird can always download it but out of the box, Geary would provide a much more cohesive experience.
Geary’s missing ews/exchange feature is one of the reason it’s not a default mail client. It doesn’t have openpgp support either. As for thunderbird there are extensions which would make it a native apps.
Yeah, I agree - I’ve taken Geary for a spin several times - It’s not mature and doesn’t have many features compared to the other mature clients available. I vote for Evolution being the default client as it’s a complete product.
I agree. Though I would always prefer native gtk3 apps that follow the gnome hig. But in this case it’s a little bit more.
It would be like if your exchange Firefox with gnome epiphany.
I’ve tried geary in the very recent past and although it’s very nice, it just can’t compare to the competition.
Evolution is far superior in every possible way, integrates with GOA and also has calendaring, which is paramount for work. Other than no CSD, it looks and feels right in Gnome and Unity. And I believe some of its backend components are already in use by the DE.
Thunderbird is also up there with Evolution, but it does not integrate with GOA and has trouble with local storage: connecting it to my 15 year old GMail makes it use around 10GB worth of cached storage.
Of course! It only just received the ability to use ‘Contacts’! Imagine that, a feature that one would consider one of the 1st things an email client should have! It’s a very simplistic email app.
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For me that is not a plus.