Email client versus webmail

[Caezar]

I have never used any mail client in the past and have always accessed my Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail accounts online.

I gave a try to Mail by curiosity and I am experiencing several problems:
- I managed to set up Gmail and Yahoo and import all my messages, but I have had problems to connect to Yahoo today. As for Gmail, it does not retrieve any of the messages I received.
- When accessed through Firefox, Yahoo and Gmail are efficient in filtering spam. However, Mail puts all my messages, including spam, in the Inbox even though I enabled junk filtering.
- when I delete a message, the next message in the Inbox is automatically selected and marked as read. This is extremely annoying as it might lead me to believe that I really read that message even though I did not. I have not found a way to change Mail's behavior, so that a message is marked as read only when I double-clicked on it and really read it.
- When I am at work I sometimes check my messages through the web. It means that when I am back home, the messages I already read will be shown again as unread in Mail. Is there a way for Mail to know which messages were already read throught the web interface?

Due to these issues, I am tempted to give up on mail clients and go back accessing my mailboxes through the web. I really do not see the advantage of using this type of application. Am I missing something?

 

[kerpow]

Mail takes a little time to get used to but it quickly became my fav. mail client having used Microsoft clients (Outlook/OE/Entourage) Eurdora and Thunderbird. It's spam filtering is quite impressive once you've told it what mail is junk. Don't delete a spam email, always click on Junk.

As for new messages in Mail once you've read them on webmail - no thats not going to work. Mail downloads whatever email is on your mail server and since ISP mail servers are simple UNIX boxes they're not going to give you this kind of functionality. Does .Mac provide this functionality? I don't know, its an unneccessary expense for me but may suit your needs.

The good things about Mail is:

1. Autosaves and then autofills contact information. Outlook does this but Mail does it better.
2. Everything is tied in with Spotlight. This is the real killer. It will find anything in seconds. Mail doesn't even have to be open.
3. Send content from other Mac apps through Mail. Certainly in iPhoto this is great though you can do it with Entourage as well. (Entourage has many of its own problems though and of course, costs a fortune).

 

[Caezar]

Interesting. I did not think about the Spotlight advantage. What about my third "gripe", do you know a way to avoid the problem?

When I delete a message, the next message in the Inbox is automatically selected and marked as read. This is extremely annoying as it might lead me to believe that I really read that message even though I did not. I have not found a way to change Mail's behavior, so that a message is marked as read only when I double-clicked on it and really read it.