Using Postbox

I’ve decided to give Postbox (version 1) a try as my default e-mail client. I love Mail.app’s simplicity, but it has some quirks and I feel I could do better.

Here’s what I like so far:

• A sleek interface for tagging (called topics)
• Quick browsing of attachments in a folder or from a contact
• Archive message immediately with ‘a’
• Gmail-style conversation view
• Pretty good and quick search
• Plug-in potential, although there’s not much available yet.

Here’s what I dislike so far:

• No global folders, i.e. one inbox, trash, sent and drafts for all accounts
• Topics don’t seem to be IMAP-portable, so you have to apply tags both at home and at work
• Message rules can not filter on content, only on message headers
• The message composer is bulky
• Integration with Mac OS X is not as good as Mail.app
• It’s Mozilla-based, not native.

I’m undecided on:

• Tabbed interface. I’m not used to it, I don’t need it and I don’t use it. But it might grow on me.
• Editing messages: not sure why I’d want to do that.
• Facebook and Twitter integration

Postbox does not come for free, while Mail.app and Thunderbird do. So it should really impress be before I switch. I remain unconvinced but hopeful for now.