Hey guys — I'm Chris Kirk, the author. It's an nw.js application (formerly known as node-webkit). Nw.js is basically a framework for building native desktop clients with Node.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to give the client much attention since writing this article. Slate was amazing for giving me a month to work on it and report on that experience, but it's not in the email business. I come back to SlateMail from time to time, but right now the app is not exactly in a usable state. Nylas N1 (https://github.com/nylas/N1) is similar -- an extensible email client based on Web technology. Nylas has a whole team of people on it, and it's in active development. So if SlateMail interests you, I recommend you check Nylas N1 out!

Thanks for the kind words about N1! I'm one of the Nylas co-founders. :)

I'd love to get your take on N1, especially given that you've dug so much into email the past few weeks! Shoot me a note? [email protected]

Edit: Just saw this article was actually written in February :P

Nylas N1 looks really nice, thanks for telling about it :D

No README.md in the root of a git repo is definitely a bad sign.

It's a personal project that the author didn't expect anyone would ever look at. He's also a journalist, not a software developer. It's an accomplishment that he had the determination to complete his project, even if it is rough around the edges.

He's a journalist, so I'm sure he expected people would be looking at it. Reasons were probably more due to inexperience and lack of time.

I bet if you asked him nicely or kindly pointed out that he's missing that, he might add one.

Seems he did! https://github.com/cperryk/slatemail/blob/master/README.md

Great! States what it's, why you should not use it and what to use instead. Such an information is helpful.

It uses 'node-webkit'. If you just throw node-webkit at it, it might work!