Pine

Pine is a software application that helps individuals compose e-mail messages, send and receive them, as well as manage contacts through an address book.

Simple setup, yet not very intuitive UI

The installation process does not last too long, as it does not pose any issues such as offering you to download third-party products. The interface, however, is not particularly user-friendly, as it cannot be considered a full “graphical UI,” seeing it comes packed with some elements which are typical to command-line apps, as well as some controls that users are accustomed to seeing, such as a menu bar and a few scroll bars.
As a result, it becomes quite clear that this program might be a bit confusing for some users, especially novice ones. Nevertheless, comprehensive Help contents are provided for each screen you might end up on.

Manage incoming and outgoing e-mails

As stated above, this is a pretty simple mail client, which enables you to compose messages by simply inputting the sender and receiver addresses, subject and the actual text you want to transmit. You can also add attachments, yet you should know that no text editing options are put at your disposal.
In addition to that, it is possible to view all received messages, forward or reply to them, as well as delete them, flag them according to importance or sort them according to many elements (e.g. arrival, sender, thread, score, size, etc.).

Customize font and manage a contact list

You can customize the font type, style, size and color from the menu bar, show or hide the toolbar and change its position in the main window, use dialog boxes and open new mails in new screens.
Last but not least, adding new contacts to an address book is possible, along with details such as address, full name, nickname and a comment (if any).

Bottom line

To conclude, Pine is a pretty decent piece of software, which does not put a strain on the computer’s performance and is mostly dedicated to power users. The response time is good and we did not come across any hangs or freezes in our tests, yet you should know that the utility has been discontinued, and thus some errors might appear from time to time.