Ouch! I realize that sounds harsh.
Let me be clearer. Gmail is very sophisticated. And with cleaver plugins,
you can make it less noisy and have a UI you'd prefer (See Minimalist for
Gmail http://goo.gl/gSAi4).
But it is not IMAP or POP. This means 100% of new users of gmail haven't a
clue as to how it works.
One trivial example: Sent messages. In POP/IMAP clients, these are messages
that you have sent from the account (SMTP). In Gmail it is a system "label"
(not folder).
Now lets suppose you send a message to a "conversation" (IMAP/POP: thread)
and you later delete the thread in Gmail. It will also delete your copy of
your outgoing email from the Sent label/folder!
This behavior moves users to the simpler Archive usage. Great. You keep
all email you've sent or read. Ever. You do this because there is really
no alternative for the behavior you'd like for our earlier Sent message
behavior. Thus Google have a gold mine of preferences to use as they
please.
The point I'm (badly) making is that very, very few users .. including 80%
of Friam .. understand these subtleties. And it is dangerous.
A few simple rules help. Never use a service that entraps your data .. i.e.
you cannot pull it back out. Gmail is great that way: simply hook up an
IMAP client, and it will transfer GMail messages to any new account you
might create. If that stops being available, I'd leave it. (Yes, I use
Gmail .. via DNS)
Another rule is to have your own DNS name. Why? Because you have a single
identity on the web and if you move to a new ISP, you simply change your DNS
records and no user of your identity (mail, web...) is confused.
For novice users, the two most difficult to understand events are:
1 - To get a new computer (Where'd my mail go? .. etc)
2 - To change ISPs (Holy cow, I'm now joe@gmail and was joe@earthlink ..
what do I do?!)
And a third is now hot on their heels:
3 - To have multiple devices (phone, pad, TV, server, laptop, desktop) all
of which need to share certain data like email.
Another is to be polite .. which I screwed up and hope not too badly! :)
-- Owen
On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 8:48 PM, Owen Densmore <[email protected]> wrote:
> BTW Sarbajit, you are a gmail user. Could you enumerate the difficulties,
> even immoralities, that entails? We have to be careful what we consider
> "free".
>
> -- Owen
>
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