They absolutely could. Terminal usage for Linux and Mac is already very similar, and a lot of the same builds work for both. Mozilla it with Thunderbird. BTW, I use dedicated Pop_OS on my main laptop too. The first thing I do when I get a new laptop is grab a thumb drive lol. You’re right about desktop Linux too. The Linux desktop experience runs laps around Windows. They know it too, that’s why they copied Deepin OS for Windows 11. Look at the similarities when you get a chance. Windows 11 looks like a modified version of Deepin. I’ll post links but not sure how eMclient’s policy is with links so they might kill em. If they do, just google the two, ie Windows 11 then Deepin OS, and click images…
I didn’t have any luck with Wine on Linux Mint. However, Crossover, after a long time adding .Net stuff, worked very well UNTIL: I wanted to open eMClient settings. Going to the menu and just clicking “Settings” gave an immediate crash. Every time without fail. Other menu items worked as expected. I tried reinstalling but no improvement. Unfortunately neither Code Weavers nor EMC support could help.
I am hoping for eM Client for Linux, too. I replied to another thread about it not knowing about this thread…
With the views on that thread and this one, eM Client is missing a lot of license sales as there is a demand for it on Linux. I know I would need a lifetime license for 4-5 computers.
They could make a Flatpak or Snap for eM Client. I would be happy with a 64-bit .DEB of eM Client, but Flatpak or Snap would be OK as well.
For those of us needing an alternative until eM Client for Linux becomes a reality…
Both Mailspring and BlueMail have SNAP installs for Linux along with Windows and Mac versions. BlueMail is also available for Android. I like Mailspring more than BlueMail, but I would love eM Client a whole lot more for Linux.
Come on eM Client. Get a Linux version out soon before it is too late.
DotNet is available on Linux now. Formerly know as DotNet Core, with version 6 is it now simply DotNet, since the former Core package is now the primary package. So, the fact that eM Client is implemented with DotNet should no longer prevent a Linux version.
Someone said that the market for Linux was only under 2% (3% as of 2022)… but, they are forgetting that every year, between 250 to 350 million desktop computers are sold.
Even at 2 or 3% that’s still an average of 5 to 10 million desktops every year using Linux.
It may not seem that much, but considering that all email clients for linux desktops look so bad, this is actually an opportunity, if only the director has vision.
While I understand Linux users are [presumably] an incredibly small slice of eM’s userbase, and thus doubtful Linux support will be considered worth the time & money at any point in the near future, I’ll add my request to the pile for just that.
I’m guessing eM Client has a substantial set of dependencies on full .net framework stuff, hence the port to .net core isn’t a trivial task. But if that guess is wrong and a .net core build isn’t terribly difficult, would be great to see a “not supported; use at your own risk; etc.” beta version we can fiddle with.
I have installed EMC in Linux Mint using Crossover, another Wine-based app. It installs fine but it crashes each time Menu/Settings is selected. In addition it is subject to frequent random crashes. In short it runs with serious failures.
I’m also actively looking to move to Linux as Windows 11 is just not palatable with the amount of spyware and adware in it.
But will look into Thunderbird or Mailspring on that platform. eMclient was nice to have, but will not be a showstopper for switching platforms for me.
I used Mac for a decade when they switched to Intel, but I don’t think the Apple tax is worth it anymore, and they are also building ever higher walls to their garden which I’m not a fan of.
But this thread is about Linux and I wanted to add my voice to it. I found a distro called VanillaOS which looks really interesting and seems to offer the freedom to try many different things, so that’s my plan now.
Given up waiting for now. Using a faster desktop with eM client 9.2 / Win11 on my LAN via Remmina RDP. Not ideal, but hey, it flies on my network and “feels” local enough. Only have eM client running and tuned the PC for remote access and is hardwired gigabit.
I know this thread is quite old, but I was just wondering why there was never any traction on this.
I think the main problem is em client uses .Net Framework which is kinda just in long term support status from MS and ONLY supports windows, MS advised everyone moved over to .Net Core about 8 years ago which is cross platform and then discontinued that and just renamed it .Net.
I imagine almost all their C# code can be migrated over to .Net (the cross platform one) pretty easily and it would just need a few refactors to certain namespaces and they would also probably get a free performance boost as well.
The problem I imagine is that they will have dependencies on other code that may or may not have newer .Net versions, and if there isnt they either need to find a way around it, but I cant see there being there being LOADS of stuff that would fall into this category.
Migrating to the newer .Net framework (i.e .Net 8) would bring LOTS of performance gains for free, better memory usage and optimizations as well as better security at .Net level.
(Michal’s Follow up confirms the state of .net and thats not the problem)
Is there anything on the roadmap to migrate to the newer .net platform?
eM Client does not use .Net Framework for a long time. We use a modern .Net 7 and we’ll migrate to .Net 8 soon. This is not the main issue with a Linux version. .Net 7 can be executed on Linux, that’s correct, but the problem is with so many OS specific code that would be necessary to be ported manually + the whole graphical library eM Client is built on is NOT supported on Linux. We put an outstanding effort to port these things to Mac (it took several years to do so), but we don’t see the business potential to make such port for Linux. A lot of people think this is a rather small task to do, but definitely it is not. It would be a super huge task. Until something really important shifts on the OS market we would rather invest that effort to a mobile app and new features for major platforms. Sorry for that.
I have been trying to use eMClient in Linux Mint with Codeweavers Crossover for acouple of years now. It almost works but there is something there that always throws a spanner in the works, particularly in the area of eMC Settings. I have just tried again with beta 24 of Crossover and, again, it seems to be working fine but most of the settings menu is invisible. In the past there have been crashes just clicking Settings. I don’t know about these things but could there be some collaberation between eMC, Codeweavers and eMC/Crossover users to get this over the line?
As a fellow developer, I understand the struggle of porting. That being said, I wonder if this couldn’t be up for reevaluation given a few different points in particular:
Linux marketshare is now higher than that of macOS, for which you have a version of eMClient. If you include Chromebooks into the percentage (as many/most can run native Linux apps now) it doubles the macOS percentage.
Frameworks like Avalonia exist for .net that not only provide a familiar interface for writing fully cross-platform applications, but also have tools that allow for easy porting of existing WPF code to the UI library.
I understand there are many factors in such a decision, and porting the entire UI to a new framework is never an easy or small thing, but it could make future development easier, while allowing access to new platforms. Plus, there are tools to make it easier as I mentioned.
Hello, this is really FAR more difficult task than you think.
To your statements:
I am not sure, where you’ve gotten these data
Based on StatCounter (Operating system/Windows share (December 2023) | Born's Tech and Windows World), the market share on desktop is 73% Windows, 16% macOS and 4% Linux.
And typically these are users that are not use to pay for any kind of software as they use opensource and free products only.
Avalonia will not help us at all. It would mean to start UI development from the scratch. Please note, that eM Client is not based on WPF, but Windows Forms.
