Ubuntu Unleashed 2013 Edition: Covering 12.10 and 13.04, Eighth Edition

The Mail User Agent

The mail user agent (MUA) is another necessary part of the email system. The MUA is a mail client, or mail reader, that enables the user to read and compose email and provides the user interface. (It is the email application itself that most users are familiar with as “email.”) Some popular UNIX command-line MUAs are elm, pine, and mutt. Ubuntu also provides modern GUI MUAs: Evolution, Thunderbird, Mozilla Mail, Balsa, Sylpheed, and KMail. For comparison, common non-UNIX MUAs are Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Pegasus Mail, and Apple Inc.’s Mail.

The Microsoft Windows and Macintosh MUAs often include some MTA functionality; UNIX does not. For example, Microsoft Outlook can connect to your Internet provider’s mail server ...