The Postman always rings twice

[heycal]

Do you folks use the mail app on your mac's? I never have. I primarily use Yahoo and Hotmail for my emailing needs, with Yahoo being the primary one. I have both in my favorites bar, and click on the one I want to check. Also, I've set up my computer to go straight to my yahoo inbox open opening.

I've used this system for 7 years on my old Air, and now on my new MacBook Pro. Have my iPhone set up same way. It works well enough, but I've wondered if I'm missing out on a better way to check, receive, and send email, and I was just too lazy to learn how (which is probably true with many other features of my Mac.)

Can someone please explain what I'm missing, if anything? And if I am missing something, how to set up things a better way?

 

[velocityg4]

I'll list a few advantages
- Performance: The mail app or some other client. Often use less system resources than web pages and all their scripts. GMail is a RAM hog on the web.
- Consistency: No more sudden interface changes just because they decided to fiddle with things on webmail. Also everything looks the same no matter the e-mail host. While the GUI of GMail, Yahoo, Outlook.com, &c differ from each other.
- Ads: No more pollution of the email interface with ads. Sure you still get spam. But you don't have distracting ads show up on the email page.
- Contacts: All your contacts are at your fingertips. You don't have to keep two accounts contacts in sync or try to email someone from one account. Only to realize you need to be in the other to get their address.
- Ease: You can quickly jump from one email address to another. You can even view the Inbox and some other main folders in a unified view. Replies come by default from the receiving account. Customizations like signatures may also be applied to all accounts.
- Offline: You may view downloaded emails when you have no connection. You may also create emails and replies to be sent once you connect to the internet.

Downsides
- Sometimes accounts go offline and need reconnecting.
- Sometimes refreshing folders experiences delays.

My preferred e-mail client is Thunderbird. Mostly because it's what I've used for a long time. I also like that it is more customizeable. Plus it is the same whether on Mac, Windows or Linux. The downside being it doesn't work with Exchange and contact syncing can be a pain. Apple's solution is simpler. I've actually started using it on Mac but still use Thunderbird elsewhere. My main gripe about Apple Mail is I can find no way to put the preview pain below the message list rather than the side.

 

[heycal]

Thanks for your take on things. Though I got lost at the "email client... Thunderbird.. Linux" talk.