Mutt (e-mail client)
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 Mutt in action |
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| Developer: | Thomas Roessler |
| Latest release: | 1.5.13 / August 11, 2006 |
| OS: | Unix, Linux, Windows, DOS |
| Use: | E-mail client |
| License: | GPL |
| Website: | mutt.org |
Mutt is a text-based e-mail client for Unix-like systems. It was originally written by Michael Elkins in 1995 and released under the GNU General Public License. Initially it resembled elm, nowadays the program most similar to it may be slrn.
Mutt supports most mail formats (notably both mbox and Maildir) and protocols (POP3, IMAP, etc). It also includes MIME support, notably full PGP/GPG and S/MIME integration.
Mutt is a pure Mail User Agent (MUA) and cannot send e-mail in isolation. To do this, it needs to communicate with a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) using, for example, the common Unix sendmail interface.
It is rather configurable: it has hundreds of configuration directives and commands. It allows for changing all the key bindings and making keyboard macros for complex actions, as well as the colors and the layout of most of the interface. There are also many patches and extensions available that add functionality, such as NNTP support or a sidebar.
Mutt is fully controlled with the keyboard, and has support for mail threading, meaning one can easily move around long discussions such as in mailing lists. New messages are composed with an external text editor by default (unlike pine, which embeds its own editor known as pico).
[edit] "Mutt Sucks Less"
The mutt slogan is "All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less". The authors of mutt claim that while all e-mail clients are flawed, mutt has fewer flaws than any of the competition. The application of "foo sucks less" has been observed making its way into mainstream hacker jargon as a form of compliment.
