Another bone of contention ...
Duplicate messages on the POP3 account (gmail). This is how it happened:
4 new messages arrive.
I double click on one to open it in a new window and read it. Close it and read the second. As if by magic the first message duplicates itself.
I delete the duplicate.
As if by more magic another duplicate appears ...
To cut the long story short, by the time I closed kmail there were 17 deleted messages in the Trash folder ...
I emptied the Trash folder, resynced the lot for umpteen time, closed kmail and went to bed in a foul mood.
This morning I start up kmail and look here! All deleted messages and duplicates are still in my POP3 Inbox (local folder). This is ridiculous ...
<start of rant>
Clearly my kmail is not functioning even as alpha software should. Duplicates that recreate themselves, deleted messages that reappear, IMAP Inbox messages that never show up, delays while akonadi/nepomuk do their thang. This is not a mail client but a big bad joke!
I seriously wish that the KDE devs sat down and thought this through, instead of rushing headlong into what seems like a wet dream of someone who's suffering with OCD and hyperactivity disorder combined into one, on an acid trip! Continuous release of code that breaks users' business critical systems , for the sake of functionality that only *some* would appreciate, is *not* what progress is about. The feature of desktop search, tagging and integration of information is fine, but only for those who need it. The rest of us can still use find and egrep, while we enjoy a reliable mail function - which is what *really* matters to many of us!
Fine, add semantic databases and what not if you want to - but can you please give us an option of switching the darn things off? Even better, instead of hardcoding them, can we please have a couple of USE flags that will make sure we do not install all this bloat in the first place? Can't we have a KDEPIM-lite as KDE-3.5 used to be?
I really like kmail and have been using for more than 7-8 years now, but this has brought me to the brink. When the KDE semantic desktop mess and associated crashes first hit the main tree I thought it was time to look at other clients and kiss kmail goodbye. Having done the rounds on claws, T'bird, mutt, etc I eventually came back to kmail. That's because my productivity would plummet every time I tried to use another mail client. Given the <aheam!> negative experience I've had so far and the time I've spent trying to fix this mess I'll keep KDEPIM away from all other boxen of mine. If KDEPIM improves to the point of becoming usable again then I'll probably return to it.
For now I think that my precious time will be better spent in learning how to configure and use mutt, because this rather traumatic KDEPIM experience has pushed me away from all this GUIfied bloat. I have a feeling that I will soon be using mutt for good.
<end of rant>