Using the Alpine email reader
Modern Reader
The newest incarnation of the Pine email reader is fast, easy to use, and offers a thoroughly modern feature set.
Alpine [1] is the latest incarnation of Pine [2], an email reader developed by the University of Washington. If you first got on the Internet in the mid-1990s at a university or college, chances are good that you used Pine to connect. However, despite its age, Alpine is a thoroughly modern email reader, with support for UTF-8 characters and most of the other features found in desktop readers like KMail or Evolution.
In fact, a case could made for making Alpine your default email reader on the desktop. It's fast and easy to navigate, reduces repetitive stress injuries by keeping your hands on the keyboard (although mouse support can be added), and remains functional when your X server fails, which makes it a useful part of your recovery toolkit.
The only sign of Alpine's age is a few terms that are non-standard today: "Commit changes" for "Save," "Form letter" for "Template," and "WhereIs" for "Search," for example. However, these usages are easy to figure out and create only minor learning problems.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
There's a New Linux AI Assistant in Town
Newelle is a Linux AI assistant that can work with different LLMs and includes document parsing and profiles.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.