Email clients are often loaded down with too many features. Rather than one big groupware package such as Outlook or Evolution, sometimes a simple email client is all you need. We look at three Linux email-only clients and see how they fare against today's standards. The email clients we'll look at are Balsa, KMail, and Sylpheed.

Balsa
Ten years ago when it was still in beta, this application was solid, reliable, and user-friendly. It didn't have extensions, spell check, or junk mail. Balsa simply read, replied to, deleted and saved your email.

Balsa was the first GUI tool that I used in Linux whose sole purpose was to process email. It wasn't part of the quickly outmoded Mozilla; it integrated with my desktop in both look and feel, which was important. I'll always remember how different Mozilla looked when it fired up; at the time, I was trying desperately to make my Linux desktop not look like the old-school Unix-like desktop, and Balsa gave me that ability. (Article in full and in original, available from ZD Net)