this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Do you really use all of those? I don't see the point in using so many tools when there are many standalone programs that can accomplish the same task.
It depends on your preferences of course. Notmuch offers a way fast indexer you can't get with traditional gui applications, but by itself it's not pretty useful, however the integration with other tools makes it really powerful, with afew you get your personal tagging when messages arrive (filters), with alot you just get the email frontend. If you like the terminal experience, then you'd know you need something extra for smtp (writing emails) and there you have for example msmtp. It's a matter of choice. I mentioned notmuch since the traditional approach to the terminal is plain neomutt, but there are alternatives. isync (mbsync) actually interacts well with neomutt but it also does it with notmuch, and neomutt can be used as a frontend for notmuch as well. A matter of choices.
The thing with solutions like thunderbird is that you have to adhere to their design decisions. For example I don't like their librnp implementation, and I had to create alpm hooks on artix to keep updating such library with sequoia-octopus-librnp, not because I like rust (I don't dislike it either), but because at least I can keep just one keyring, and thunderbird when not having a master password (the default) keeps its keyring unencrypted, and I pretty much see no reason not to use gnupg. So I decided I better kept using gnupg's keyring and stuff. Integrating different tools designed for specific purposes you have more freedom of choice. At any rate that's how unix was conceived, and you can choose to do it that way if you want.
unix philosophy