Email For The People: Devs Start Planning A New Email Client

By

20100118-email-cc.jpg
Photo by mattwi1s0n, used under CC License

Users of Mac OS X are spoilt for choice when it comes to notepad apps. We have dozens of text editors and word processors to choose from. There are more browsers than we can shake a collective stick at.

But email clients? Well, there’s not so many of those. And one developer, Brent Simmons of NetNewsWire fame, says he’d like to see at least one more.

This weekend, he posted a request for help. There’s a need for a new email client, he said: perhaps by starting the conversation and rallying together some developers, he’d be able to kick off a new development project. (He has no wish to lead it, and might not even be able to contribute code; his post was more of a call-to-arms.)

So, what’s been the reaction so far?

Quite a few developers and non-developers have piped up with their ideas on the email-init mailing list Brent set up to begin the conversation. There’s a separate list, letters-dev, for technical discussion.

The idea already has support from developers including Gus Mueller (creator of Acorn and VoodooPad) and Daniel Jalkut from Red Sweater Software, inside whose blog editor MarsEdit I am typing these words. So, you know: people who know their stuff. There’s obviously some energetic support to be tapped here.

Building a good email client from scratch is no easy task, though. Back in 2006, someone had a very similar idea. It was called Kiwi. Some screenshots appeared, but downloads didn’t.

Then again, Kiwi was not born in the same way. Brent Simmons’ idea is ambitious, there’s no doubt about that; but by calling for help from his fellows and friends in the OS X development community, he’s given it the best possible start in life.

We wish the project the very best of luck and look forward to seeing the results :)

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.