NeoMail vs Uebimiau vs Open Webmail
I think (and this is just my opinion) that we're doing our users a terrible disservice by offering the horrific Uebimiau. No matter what else is decided, I'm hereby *begging* (as I have also done elsewhere in these forums) the CPanel3 folks to please, please get rid of that Uebimiau atrosity once and for all!
I don't understand why we need to offer multiple webmail user interface choices in the first place. I understand NeoMail's shortcomings (some of which, I've noticed, have been remedied of late -- most notibly, how it displays HTML-formatted messages, among others). But anyone who thinks that offering Uebimiau as an alternative to NeoMail makes us look more professional, or in any way enhances the level of service that we are able to deliver to our customers, is dreaming. NeoMail, warts and all, is the only interface that should pop-up at :2082 in my opinion for the time being.
Now, that having been said, this whole business of Open Webmail really interests me! Lately, I've been researching which web-based email client I'd like to offer with my dial-up accounts (separate from CPanel). In my research, I found the web site:
http://www.cru.fr/http-mail/
and I've been looking at all the different choices. Of course I like SquirrelMail, as several others here have mentioned. Its interface is the most full-featured and comes the closest to looking and behaving, generally, like the interface at big sites like MAIL.COM and others. But SquirrelMail is IMAP. And, frankly, I've heard some weird stories about SquirrelMail and the actual practicalities of maintaining it. I know of one ISP in Rohnert Park, California who recently dumped it in favor of IMP. And he swears it was the best thing he ever did. So I'm not so sure SquirrelMail is necessarily the end-all and be-all of web-based email, either.
I think we need to not lose site of the role of web-based email for most of our users -- or at least what its role *should* be. The guy who wrote NeoMail used the slogan &Webmail that doesn't suck... as much.& Some of us hated that slogan, but when talking to the guy you realize that his point was that *all* web-based email pretty much sucks (when compared with using a real email client on one's PC). And that the point of NeoMail was to deliver the essential features -- no more and no less -- and that's it. The presumption of NeoMail's creator was that NeoMail (or any web-based email client, for that matter) is something one should only use when one isn't at one's PC where he/she may use a *real* email client like Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Communicator, Eudora, or whatever. And, personally, I completely agree with that viewpoint. I counsel all of my users *not* to make the web-based interface their *only* interface; to use a *real* email client as their default interface; and to only use NeoMail when at work, at a friend's house, while traveling, at a Kinkos or wherever their computer is not.
But, regardless whether it's their only interface or just a tool when they're traveling, most of our users are accustomed to NeoMail. And that, among other things, makes Open Webmail the *perfect* choice to replace it, in my opinion.
As a NeoMail fan (yes, even with all its shortcomings), I was naturally attracted to Open Webmail since it's based on NeoMail, pretty much looks and behaves like NeoMail, and definitely does NeoMail one better in a whole bunch of areas.
I think there is (or should be) no question that Open Webmail is the direction the CPanel3 folks ought to go -- assuming they can get everything working as smoothly as NeoMail has been working.
I think that, once the following things are true:
1. That all the bugs have been worked out of its integration into CPanel3, and,
2. That users don't suddenly have to type-in different login and password data from what they've been typing-in when using NeoMail, and,
3. That there will be some kind of procedure whereby address book, folder contents, and user preference settings will not be lost or damaged in the changeover, then,
Open Webmail should *definitely* be the only web-based interface that appears at :2082 ; that we should just get rid of NeoMail in favor of Open Webmail and that Open Webmail should be the only choice. Any NeoMail user who gives Open Webmail an honest try would agree, I think.
And, thereafter, once Open Webmail is decided upon and its implementation into CPanel3 perfected, the CPanel folks should really go and concentrate on other stuff and leave the web-based email interface more or less alone (save for bug reports and whatnot) so we all don't have to go through this again!
Just my opinion.
For those who have never seen Open Webmail, just think NeoMail but with slightly different icons in the upper-left area of the screen, and a whole bunch more cool features throughout. And better speed in places, and less memory usage.
Anyone who wants to read more about Open Webmail should point their web browsers at:
http://openwebmail.org/openwebmail/
And don't forget to look at the screenshots!
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Gregg L. DesElms
