March 20, 2001, 11:47 AM —
One of the first things I learned after starting this gig at LinuxWorld.com was that it's not at all unusual to hear from readers who are much better informed, and much more knowledgeable about Linux, than I am.
If I had harbored any secret desires to be taken for a Linux guru just because my name was on the masthead, they were quickly dispelled. Many of my best columns have come as a direct result of reader feedback. I don't always acknowledge that, but I should. This week there will be no pretense. Not counting vendors pitching their wares, I heard from readers about two applications that were new to me. One is a nifty email client called Sylpheed. Forum regular Raskinite mentioned Sylpheed in response to my recent column on Evolution, and I'm writing about it this week.
I learned about the second application from John Lederer, a chum from bygone days in a forum far away called Canopus. He wrote recently to let me know about a project he's involved with called Rolodap, which is an LDAP-based contact manager application. I'll write about that app in the near future. You can find the URLs for both projects in the Resources section.
Discovering Sylpheed
I found Sylpheed on Freshmeat, just as Raskinite had said I would. I chose to download it in the RPM format, and in less than five minutes from start to finish I had a new mail client ready to go. One of the features listed on the Sylpheed homepage is the ability to handle news as well as mail. Since that feature is currently on hold in Evolution, I decided to check it out right away.
