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If you're travelling, couldn't you just run an email client from a flash drive or something?

I don't have any of that, because I got rid of the default ugly colors and made my client as plain as possible.  The "skin" I use is attached here.  I thought there was more to it than one INI file, so I would be somewhat surprised if this actually worked.  The one thing it won't change is the stupid orange mailbox icons; to change that, you can follow the instructions here (which I wrote).

If I can help answer questions or point out features of PocoMail 3, I will do so.  I can point out that it meets all of Jibz' points above.  And the functionality of PocoScripts is important to consider, I think, since it gives you quite a bit of control over handling your email, attachments, and even run external applications or perform other tasks.

BTW, regarding a border/color change caused by hot tracking in PocoMail; I see only one, and in the preview pane, and it's minimal (it's 1 pixel wide!).  I assume they do it there because otherwise, there would be no indication that the preview pane had focus.

I was trying to think of a word that combined the Greek root "philos" with "software", just as "philosophy" is "love of wisdom" (Zaine ought to know a bit about that).  I couldn't come up with anything decent though.  Philosoftie?  Ugh...

[Opera 7 and up]

Using Opera 8, I get the ironic and bizarre message:

Message should read something like:

Your browser is not supported by this service

Then display the client browser:

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Then display a list of supported browsers:

Windows 98, NT, 2000, XP:
Internet Explorer 6 and up
Netscape 6 and up
AOL 8 and up
Opera 7 and up

Mac OS:

Internet Explorer 5 and up
Netscape 6 and up
Safari

Linux/Unix:

Netscape 6 and up
Opera 7 and up

thanks everyone for being so patient!
i'm so relieved we didn't lose any posts or members.

Didn't we?  Some posts related to my goofy "Google Search" coding snacks thing seem to have been lost.  I thought.  Maybe.  Sorta.

Converting to PNG is a good idea if you'll be making a lot of changes that you may want to save intermittently, without the quality getting worse each time.  (Not being a smart-ass, just adding a thought.)

Why does it have to be freeware?  Zaine himself isn't just a freeware advocate.  From his own site:

Don't be a freeware zealot; that is, don't rate freeware higher than shareware just because it's free. I'm more than willing to register, upgrade, and support quality shareware within my budget. So should you if you want more great software to choose from.

Prove what wrong, that hot tracking is horrible and evil?  Well, PocoMail is really the only application I use it in, and I think it's the only application I have ever really used it in.  I tend to appreciate hot tracking more in PocoMail more than anywhere else.  Once you get used to it--if you are inclined to in the first place--it's convenient, since you just move the cursor, then can hit the Delete key, or whatever.

Here's why hot tracking is cool: Personally, I hate having to click in a frame to give it focus.  If you have something selected in the target frame, such as a particular email message, clicking in the wrong place will change your selection.  This is an especial pain in the ass when you have made multiple selections, and then lose them because you have to click to give focus.  I've had that happen after painstakingly making a wide range of selections using Ctrl, Shift, and Ctrl+Shift.  It makes me literally scream when it happens.

And it's not just selections...  If there are radio buttons, check boxes, or other controls in the target frame, then you can accidentally select those, too.

Hot tracking prevents both problems.

Though few are, applications can be designed to ignore the first mouse click, so that first click just gives focus, and nothing else.  But as far as I'm concerned, that just adds another pain in the ass, since you then have to keep track of what has focus, and then keep in mind that sometimes, the first click will do something, and other times it won't.

Yes, you can also (usually) use the Tab key to switch focus, but that drive me absolutely nuts.  Half the time, the stupid application has a Tab order that makes no sense whatsoever, and in most cases, you end up having to hit Tab 3,500 times to get where you want.  And if you're me, you accidentally skip right past the object you want to give focus to on the first 10 tries, so you have to try again and again, with your blood pressure rising each time.

It's just easier to (1) Move the cursor, and (2) Do whatever you want.  Once you get used to it, that is.

So there you have it. 

Then there is X-Mouse; now there's something that drives me bonkers!  I also just tried a little utility that made the cursor wrap around one edge of the screen to the other, rather than stopping at the borders...  Now that is something I just cannot get used to!

I normally hate "mouse hot tracking" too (the feature you mention where focus follows the mouse).  PocoMail lets you disable it, fortunately.

I hate the default orange colors.  I think it's a ridiculous choice as a default color--and in some cases (like the color of mailbox icons), you can't change it without using a resource editor (which I very hastily do after each PocoMail update).  That's nonsense.

Not sure what you mean about the buttons or the tooltips, and I'm too lazy and tired to look. 

I hadn't used Google Maps before.  Now that I look at it, I fail to see any benefit of it.  Maybe it just isn't working correctly for me in Opera, but it doesn't seem to do much of anything!

PocoMail 3 doesn't look crowded or messy to me.  I think it just takes getting used to, because it has a lot of features that bare-bones clients like Thunderbird don't.  A lot of it can be disabled, too.

PocoMail uses its own HTML engine, and doesn't support JavaScript at all.

I had to disable my beloved Ad Muncher in order to enjoy that marquee!

Wow--I am quite surprised.  What a nice gesture from VMWare!  That's so cool. 

Thank you, mouser, for giving me one of the complimentary copies of VMWare.  I will most definitely put it to good use, for work and private use alike.  I really appreciate it!

I hope no one is resentful.  If it helps, please keep in mind that this is the first time this has ever happened to me. 

The idea of VirtualDub classes was a joke.    I've been able to figure out how to chop videos down with it, but I've had no need for it otherwise.

I'd be interested to hear opinions on some of the other converters out there.  A lot of them look nice, but I can't find one that has the wide format support of River Past Video Cleaner.  (Formats like OGM are commonly missing from others, it seems.)

Whenever I use (or "try using") VirtualDub, I feel like there was a college class or two that I should have taken just to have a friggin' clue how to use it.  And can it really do all the conversions the other products can?

I'm sure, as usual, that's mentioned so often simply because it's free.

I was looking for a video-conversion utility not too long ago, and tried several.  The one I decided on was (stupidly-named) River Past Video Cleaner.  It seemed to have very good format support for the price range, and its interface was bearable to me (most others were pretty awful in that regard).

This was a few months ago though; River Past has revamped the "Video Cleaner" product since then, and has also broken it up into several versions.  I never did register Video Cleaner.

There are a lot of options in this software genre.  And I hasten to point out that it's not where I have the slightest bit of experience or expertise.  Someone I know who does a lot of heavy-duty conversion work uses ProCoder.  I don't have a link for it, since when I looked it up originally, the price tag started giving me cardiac arrest.

I read that article when it came out.  That's not when my concern started, though.

And their "privacy" policies mean nothing at all to me.  They're invariably "subject to change", which to me means they're useless.

Yeah well, flowery love-speak aside, I groan inside whenever I so much as see the words "open source".

[AppPathZ]

This should fit the bill:

AppPathZ (freeware)

On SnapFiles.com: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/apppathz.html
Home Page: http://izoxzone.150m.com/product/app/ap/index.htm

I have not tried it, but a quick glance seems to indicate that it's what you're after, mtp.

Keep in mind that adding values to the aforementioned App Paths registry value will affect all users--in case that matters to you.  (I can't see why it would, but...)  The %path% environment variable has both a user- and machine-level component.

I use Opera 8; it's great for browsing, OK (I guess) for RSS and IRC, but I don't like it at all for news or email.  It's by no means slow for me though.

This post won't be very helpful, I'm afraid...  But to give you another alternative that may be worth including in the review, consider PocoMail 3.

I have been using PocoMail 3 for a long time, and it is a very well-featured client, with an emphasis on security and total separation from the lousy MSIE engine.  Native support for scripting (i.e. "PocoScripts") is a very nice touch as well (though the script language is quite limited).

PocoMail also has some minor-but-annoying bugs, some of which I've been waiting months and months to be resolved.

I really don't care how PocoMail fares in the review, though.  I've nearly abandoned it recently, because I'm sick of taking the time to submit bug reports that seemingly go ignored.

I am glad that mouser is price-agnostic though.  A lot of people would blindly go with Thunderbird, because of god's unwritten law that OS must always get the limelight.

Yeah, that will work, but it's clunky and kludgy, and you'll eventually run into trouble, as mouser points out above.  I still recommend using the App Paths registry key.

Not going to go there!

That one was already on the links page.