You're missing out on a ton of great Gmail features if you are using a desktop mail client. Integrated hangout/voice /text chat, phone, conversation view, the social pane with contextual information..the list goes on.
Those features also only promote you to stay logged in on your gmail account at all times, and there have been numerous security issues with that approach.
I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would chose gmail over any native application for mail. Every time I see someone use gmail I cringe at how primitive and slow the workflow is.
I can't speak for the 350M other people using Gmail. But here's why I use Gmail(some of these aren't exclusively Gmail):
- Conversation View
- Calendar Integration
- Very good Labelling/Grouping system
- Online Storage
- Browser access
- Very Powerful and effecient Search
- Great filter system
- Autosaves unfinished emails
- Integration with multiple third party tools including Attachments.me, dropbox, google docs, taskforce
I used to use Thunderbird, and it was great. But I had big 3 problems with it: 1) I never got comfortable with searching emails. 2)I couldn't access my email from other devices/computers etc 3)My emails starting chewing up a lot of HDD space.
Just some comments. Thunderbird became dramatically better at searching a couple of years(?) ago. I frequently feel limited by search in gmail, I've assumed that there are advanced features lurking around somwhere but the UX is so bad I just don't.
I don't see how storage can be a problem. With gmail you hit the limit at <8 GB, that can hardly be a problem on a workstation. If anything it's an argument against gmail.
But, perhaps the most important one, I don't get why everyone seems to believe it's native or web, never both. Of course you have both... The question is why you'd want such a blunt tool for something as important as mail on your workstation. Yes, browser access is still awesome - that's why you have both.
And when you consider security it's borderline to irresponsible being logged in constantly in the browser and since I value instant notification that alone is a dealbreaker on my WS.
And if you're on a laptop with a bad connection relying on gmail or something similar is a sure way to get a heart attack.
Counter-culture? Few would argue that native apps doesn't have advantages over browser apps. The best you could say about a browser app is that it is "good enough". But obviously they suffer greatly from being in the browser just because all workstation operating systems are centered around native apps and not apps within the browser.
Which means that I can click on my mail-application in the taskbar/whatever but whereas in a browser I have to navigate through all my browser windows to find the one with mail in it, which doesn't even have to be in it's own window but hidden somewhere with lots of other tabs.
Again, I never said that my machine is more secure than googles data center servers. But any native application has security advantages over something run in the browser (and potentially drawbacks as well, but the inherent issue with being logged in on a web app doesn't exist in a native application).
-No. You are not living in reality. Browser is the future. Your resistance is futile.
-Mine is always the first tab. It is also my home page. You are making really bad excuses why this doesn't work for you.
-No. It has security dis-advantages since your data is stored on your device, which doesn't have the same security layers as Google's data centers.