I think it meets it’s stated purpose pretty well
(And actually you can do html emails – specifed by user) see http://subscribe2.wordpress.com/2006/11/20/html-email/
Also since the aim is for subscribers to be able to subscribe with minimum fuss, one wants as little data to have to be entered as possible – hence the option to “subscribe” without registering or entering any more deatils. Thus subscriber name is not always available, hence the author did not allow the functionality to “personalise”, since in most cases the data would not be there.
There are different views on personalising emails – see personalised-emails-or-communications/ for a reflection on this – the pros and cons.
It is possible to add personalisation to S2 with http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/amr-personalise/. Will work with a default if no name.
@simonwe,
I write the plugin to meet MY needs and make it available for free you are of course entitled to your opinion but do consider the following:
I see that G-Lock is about £250. I guess that may explain the advantages.
MailPress looks more complete that my plugin but in my opinion does not look as easy to set up first time.
Newsletter is no longer under active development.
