mailing client for Suse 9.3

[Tim Chase]

> I'd like to configure a pop3-account on Suse-Linux 9.3. I've read the manual 
> of pico, but I still can't use it.
> 
> Does anyone know how to setup the account with pico?
> Is there any other easy to use mail client?

Last I checked, Pico was a text-editor.  While Emacs is not only 
a text-editor, but a mail reader, web browser, psychologist, 
coffee-maker, and kitchen sink, I don't think many other editors 
provide such *ehem* "variety" of features.  However, Pine should 
come with Pico, so you might be intending to set up pine instead.

What you likely want is a *mail reader* program.  A number of 
them exist, from the ubiquitous command-line driven "mail" 
program, to elm, mutt or pine, to gui programs.  As this is the 
blinux list, I'll presume you're hunting for a console-mode mail 
program.  Mutt and Pine are both good packages with lots of 
power.  I find Pine slightly easier to use from a beginner's 
perspective, while Mutt has a lot more power and configurability 
to work the way you want to as a user.  Both support directly 
accessing POP3 mailboxes (as well as IMAP mailboxes which I 
happen to prefer, as I access my mail from a variety of 
machines).  I don't know enough about Elm to speak with any 
authority on it.

As for the "mail" or "mailx" command-line driven email reader 
program, while I don't think it has POP3/IMAP support directly, 
there are packages which slurp down mail from a POP3/IMAP account 
and deposit locally in the standard mbox format that mail/mailx uses.

Additionally, there's the "mh" ("mail handler" or "message 
handler" depending on whom you ask) package which is a suite of 
command-line driven programs that allow you to access mailboxes 
where each folder is an actual folder on your disk, and each 
message is a file within those folders.  It works well for 
working in concert with other command-line tools such as grep, 
find, etc.  In my Debian install here, it's just as simple as

	apt-get install nmh

and optionally

	apt-get install mh-book

for the manual.  "nmh" is "new mail handler" (or "new message 
handler", again, depending on whom you ask) which builds on its 
ancestor "mh".  It has support for accessing POP3 mailboxes, 
though as of my last check, doesn't seem to gracefully support 
IMAP.  YMMV.

Hope this gives you some leads.  If you have questions about any 
of these programs, there are plenty of smart folks on this list 
that should be able to help you along on your way.

-tim