Email: desktop or web interface

Standalone email or web interface?

  • standalone

    Votes: 6 24.0%

  • web interface

    Votes: 16 64.0%

  • grue

    Votes: 3 12.0%
  • Total voters
    25
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fade

fade

Staff member
Simple question: Do you you use a standalone, desktop email client, or do you use your mail provider's web interface?

Why do you use what you use?

I'm curious, because sites like Lifehacker seem to talk a lot about the "death" of the mail client. I don't see it. I still prefer Apple Mail to gmail's web interface. Which is great, but it lacks the integration with the rest of my OS's tools. Also, I'm a keyboard kind of guy (don't touch the mouse unless I have to) and I know all my email shortcuts by heart. I know. Gmail has shortcuts. Or you'll point me to 10 bazillion Firefox extensions. But FF isn't my favorite browser on Mac OS. I feel like I lose nothing, because I'm connecting by IMAP protocol to gmail (all my professional addresses just dump to gmail and autolabel to indicate their origins) so my email already looks the same from everywhere, even if I do use the web interface.
 
Denbrought

Denbrought

I use many different computers on a regular basis so I'd rather not use too much software-dependent stuff. Mail clients are fine with me, they've always struck me as easier to use plus, now that connection speed isn't that much of a problem, they don't add much wait to getting the mail.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
There are too many ways that people have hacked Outlook accounts, etc. I use Gmail now and am happy with it.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
That actually brings up a decent point. I wonder if the scene has been affected at all by the fact that Mac finally natively supports the one really good thing Microsoft ever made -- the Exchange server.
 
Espy

Espy

Similar to you Fade, I use the Apple Mail program. It's not perfect but it gets all my email accounts to one place and has great interface. They need to hurry up and combine the iCal with it and it will be that much better.
Granted I haven't tried any other desktop clients except for outlook (blech). Anyone used Thunderbird at all?
 
Covar

Covar

I use Mail on my mac and iPhone, the web interface on my windows machines since they're my secondary and work machines. Also use Lotus Notes on my work laptop.

I prefer the tighter fit that the desktop apps have, plus I have multiple e-mail accounts, having one place to check them is much easier than going to multiple websites.

Also fade Microsoft makes many great products. Windows is not one of them, but Office and Visual Studio are great.
 
R

redapples

At a recent meeting I was at someone revealled that their 12 year old daughter did not know what email was. Nevermind mail clients when is the death of email?
 
fade

fade

Staff member
Covar said:
I use Mail on my mac and iPhone, the web interface on my windows machines since they're my secondary and work machines. Also use Lotus Notes on my work laptop.

I prefer the tighter fit that the desktop apps have, plus I have multiple e-mail accounts, having one place to check them is much easier than going to multiple websites.

Also fade Microsoft makes many great products. Windows is not one of them, but Office and Visual Studio are great.
Click to expand...
I hate both of those suites. The MS API is not bad (and maybe Excel--but I make a point to avoid Word), but I don't like the studio itself. Also I was kind of joking around.
 
Ross

Ross

Staff member
I always use a web interface... it's universal, and I don't have to worry about any extra settings or connection issues to the e-mail server. Just simple, easy web interface.
 
C

Chronos[Ha-G]

Well, I did use a client-based one - till Microsoft shut down one of their hotmail servers or something. Had to log in via browser ever since.
 
MindDetective

MindDetective

I use Thunderbird and, on occasion, go to gmail directly. I prefer having a client running to grab the e-mails as the come instead of going to a web page or leaving a web page to refresh.
 
C

Chazwozel

fade said:
Simple question: Do you you use a standalone, desktop email client, or do you use your mail provider's web interface?

Why do you use what you use?

I'm curious, because sites like Lifehacker seem to talk a lot about the "death" of the mail client. I don't see it. I still prefer Apple Mail to gmail's web interface. Which is great, but it lacks the integration with the rest of my OS's tools. Also, I'm a keyboard kind of guy (don't touch the mouse unless I have to) and I know all my email shortcuts by heart. I know. Gmail has shortcuts. Or you'll point me to 10 bazillion Firefox extensions. But FF isn't my favorite browser on Mac OS. I feel like I lose nothing, because I'm connecting by IMAP protocol to gmail (all my professional addresses just dump to gmail and autolabel to indicate their origins) so my email already looks the same from everywhere, even if I do use the web interface.
Click to expand...

Thunderbird fo life bitches.
 
Seraphyn

Seraphyn

Gmail web interface. I'm a casual user of mail, so it's good enough. Never once had to look for an option that I wanted to use that wasn't implemented in the web interface already.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Depends. My personal mail is gmail, so web interface all the way, and most of my mail, including school stuff, goes there.

Work is MS Exchange (currently), and at least for the moment Outlook does a better job integrating with the rest of Office suite, which I use frequently, and supports a lot of business-oriented addons like GoToMeeting, which gmail really does not.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Neither, and both.

My primary email tool is my BlackBerry. Nine times out of ten it's not necessary to go beyond that. I'll use Thunderbird once a day or so to get anything important or to compose mail when I'm at home. Since my ISP's webmail catches spam before giving to my inbox, I'll go there about once a month to see what may have been caught by mistake. But that's about it for that.
 
drawn_inward

drawn_inward

I use gmail, yahoo web-based, and I access my school email with Entourage. I like it much better than outlook. I know they're pretty much the same thing, but I still like entourage better.
 
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