Seconded. Also applies for RSS feeds. I REALLY need a single inbox for all my stuff. Clicking through two inboxes and lots of feeds won't do.

Single Inbox is key for me too.

As with all my other concerns about feature creep from other clients, as long as it is optional.

In Mail.app i always left the inbox expanded so that I could see each inbox and clicked on each one individually. I have so many accounts and each one has different priority depending on if i am at work or at home that I don't want the email from my mom mixed in with email from my boss.

Honestly, I *LOVE* how the accounts and folder panels work by default. I think its perfect the way it is.

For me, this is a non-issue. I gave up dealing with separate accounts separately. I designate one account as my primary (it happens to be Tuffmail), and the Tuffmail server polls my other accounts (Gmail, ISP, etc.) on a regular basis for me.

Gmail and most others can do the same thing for you. You can still filter incoming mail or make topics for it if you want to keep certain things separate (like work mail). This setup is nice because you only need to configure your mail client to use your primary account, but you still get mail from all your accounts. And it makes switching mail clients an absolute breeze.

Postbox will also let you setup multiple identities if you need to reply to certain messages differently depending on which account they were sent to.

I haven't been overly meticulous in my search, but I have looked around in quite a few threads, and I have yet to come across the devs' sentiments on the matter. I hope we can get a sense of what they plan to do - moreover with a response more concrete than "this is something we hope to maybe integrate in the future" where even a general timetable is not given.

I really really want to help continue beta testing this and providing feedback on a variety of issues - currently compiling a list now - but would hate to do so for an app which I might not ever ultimately use, due to a lack of this absolutely essential feature.

Maybe allowing a simultaneous view of all mailboxes might also solve the issue of the dock icon's badge only showing the current number of unread messages for just the currently selected mailbox. Maybe not. I do my share of dev work / testing for a couple of other software developers and I fully understand that sometimes seemingly related issues might have completely separate solutions.

I absolutely prefer a consolidated inbox view option. There are situations where it is not ideal to have one account collecting mail from all other accounts. As for multiple identities, I think they are more useful for multiple users. They are a cumbersome way to deal with multiple accounts owned by the same user.

Yes, this is a deal breaker for me too. So far only Apple Mail and Windows Live Mail have offered this functionality, Postbox sure should beat those!

Yeah, this feature definitively has to be implemented. I'm not willing to work through all my inboxes just to read the few but widely spread new messages.

I prefer one inbox to rule them all, but agree that it should be a preference.

It would be a REALLY nice feature to have. Saved Searches =! Consolidated View.

It's not functionally equivalent; archiving doesn't work in Saved Search views.

I've been using tbird since it was released, but been using Mail.app in OS X for the last several months and become very much so accustomed with the global mailbox with the drop down separate accounts. It's surprisingly comfortable and since this is a developing product it would be nice if it were integrated somehow. Saved searches are incomparable in this instance. It's not even a band-aid solution.

I much agree that Postbox needs a Grand Unified Inbox *option*. I prefer it to be the default. That and the better (imo) thread-handling were the reasons I switched to Mail.app from Thunderbird. I'll keep using Postbox just for the conversation view (thank you thank you thank you) but I'd really like to see a single inbox view as an option.

UI wise, it's not -quite- the same. Saved Searches is forced to be nested in one of the Accounts' folders. A unified/combined inbox sits as a parent, not a child. Unless I'm missing something (if I do, please shed some light! Preferably a visual guide).

In most cases, it would require 2+ clicks to get to that Saved Search (choose one of the Accounts > Saved Searches) as oppose to just having a unified inbox that sits above all of the accounts (one click, really).

It's one of the many reasons why popular "reader" applications implement this view. To name a few: Mail.app, NetNewsWire, etc.

Some of us (Mac OS users?) are accustomed to have information delivered a certain way. So, it would be nice for Postbox to adapt this method as well.

This is a MAJOR deal breaker for me... Can't wait until it gets solved...

I will 2nd it 3rd it 4th it whatever number we are on. I am not sure why you can't designate all as one inbox. I haven't gotten past that to look at the other features yet because it is lacking a basic (pretty much standard as all I have owned is a mac) function. Thanks, tabbed browsing again looks awesome but I have no idea.

Hope the team is looking into getting this implemented!
My suggestion is making that "Home"...

Ummm... it's the prime reason why i tossed Thunderbird in the first place. (Next to Spell Checking and lack of basic «Mac Integration»)

Basically it leaves me mixed about what to think of Postbox.
It's a very beautiful app with very interesting concepts which I love. But on the other hand, i get this subjective feeling that it's the worst Mac Citizen I ever installed on this computer.

It's confusing and problematic for my workflow and means that it will be uninstalled for the time being... However I'd love to see improvements in this area to get me back on board. ;-)

Under Account settings --> Server settings --> Advanced you can select a Global Inbox for all Accounts in the Local Folders. This works for me with multiple POP3 Accounts.

No Global Inbox in yesterday's release?

I agree with several commenters here in saying that I'm fine with a merged Inbox IF it is an option.

Personally, I enjoy having one email program capable of handling multiple distinctly separate accounts.

The whole point is really not to have a 'merged' inbox. The point of Mail.app's shared inbox is that it's not actually merged. If you expand the mailbox, you see all your individual inboxes, still nicely separate and safe. The combined inbox is a virtual parent to them all (though there's no reason it has to be; you could just have an optional 'home' screen) which shows, in effect, the union of all the inbox contents.

To me, this makes mail so much more usable. I always leave the folder expanded, so I can see a quick break-down of where all the unread mails are. That way, I can live in my top-level combined view, seeing all e-mail as it comes in by default... but if I need/want to focus on just one account, I just slip down into that inbox.

That 'Inbox' folder holds no actual contents; it just shows the union of all the other inboxes. If that makes sense.

If I could meld Mail.app's Address book integration and that combined inbox with Postbox's sorting, tagging, filing and NNTP support, I would have my ideal client. (Well, okay, Postbox could use better Growl support and a "refresh all" to check all groups on an NNTP server, but those are minor.)

ONE POSSIBLE SOLUTION (which I am using)

... is to use the MyFolder in which you create an MainInbox, a junk, a trash etc.

Then for each one of your AccountInbox you set a filter that redirect/copy all mails received to your MainInbox. Works great and I retain the ability to used account individually.

You fold the Account panel, and you ll only see the Folder panel which is your main inbox ... piece of cake!

still waiting and waiting

I'd be willing to bet that developing this request may be easier said than done, because the developers would have to completely rewrite the underlying TBird architecture to make it happen.

As for IMAP, since that protocol syncs messages, that may be easier said than done. If IMAP is trying to sync an account's In Box, and that In Box has unrelated messages mixed in, that might throw a wrench in the works.

HOWEVER, a Smart Mailbox/Save Search option that allows the criteria to be "anything in the following mailboxes" (select the In box from each account) doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to create. (Granted, I'm not a programmer.)

Personally, I've moved AWAY from the unified in box, because it keeps me from getting distracted by personal stuff when working and vice versa. I like the clear separation.

I like it the way it is, if you choose to change the feature please leve it optional ;)

Choice for the user is again the keyword.
Some prefer it the way it is, some prefer a combined inbox.
I prefer the way mail.app does it: one inbox that can be expanded to see the all the inboxes of the different accounts.

Excellent suggestion. That's exactly what I'm looking for in this kind of softwares.
See all my inboxes together but without moving mails from one account to the other.

I am just using the saved search, I have two saved searches, one that is three days back and the other is one day back and I keep the one day back always open.
Just File->New->Saved Search, select the accounts and folders you want to keep and eye on and it is working.

the lack of this basic option is reason enough alone to stick with apple's mail program. i'll check back in year or so but no dice until then.

The saved search option do not allow thread view. I have long threads of email and doing a saved search just make it just like MS Outlook.....