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Post by cjm on Apr 6, 2015 19:02:50 GMT
I was quite relieved some years ago to wave the email client farewell and instead to use my browser to do the necessary on some website.
I could not work out why someone would want to go through the torture of downloading email on his pc - never mind the tedious work of keeping the email program updated and learning all its quirks and well-hidden secrets.
It seems that the old way is not entirely without merit.
(a) You can reduce the load on the website (eg gmail) concerned by downloading the mail and so stay within the free storage limits.
(b) The email program can access all your accounts - so it is not necessary to jump from site to site to read your mail. Apparently this can be done on gmail as well but I am still trying to find out how.
(c) Your letters can be crafted in HTML which means that the artist in you can be set free and wild.
(d) Of course you can read the mail when off-line.
(e) Thunderbird seems to be a RSS reader as well.
Perhaps there are more benefits?
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Post by Trog on Apr 7, 2015 6:58:39 GMT
On Windows, at least, it is much easier and more convenient to interact with an e-mail client native to the machine and OS you're working on.
Cut, Copy, Paste between your e-mail client and other programs are instantaneous, as are filters, searches and comparisons.
The big Windows e-mail clients such as Outlook also integrate with Microsoft Office and is both an ActiveX/COM server and client, so that you can integrate it with custom developed applications.
That said:
It is becoming increasingly irrelevant to keep your data (all of it!) on your local machine, and within the next 5 years I suspect that the practice would've all but disappeared, except for specialist applications.
In fact, that applies not only to data, but to the applications themselves, both of which would've migrated into some cloud environment.
What I am seeing is that what today is your PC/Server/LAN would've moved into a virtual equivalent in the cloud, and that your current device of interacting with your data (PC) will be replaced by a device providing merely a window into your virtual environment. This can be a low spec PC, iPhone, Smart Phone, Android device, whatever, all giving you the same user interface to your system. That means that your information system becomes independent of the device you are using - you can access it anywhere in the world, anytime, from any device.
(In a way, we are back to the days of the huge monolithic mainframes, with terminals connected to it.)
Anyway, in this environment it again makes sense to implement a dedicated e-mail client, since your data stays in the cloud anyway, and the dedicated e-mail client provides the speed and ease of use which it is designed for.
In South Africa the current problem to this is the currently still prohibitive cost of high speed broadband internet.
And, of course, being offline is not something that can still be an option.
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Post by cjm on Apr 8, 2015 19:11:15 GMT
Very informative, Trog. I must say, I'd be rather sad to take leave of my desktop pc. I detest these mobile things!! Ja, probably my age showing!
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Post by Trog on Apr 9, 2015 13:55:46 GMT
You probably won't even notice that your PC is gone. I guess the current IO devices will still be around, and for a long time still - keyboard, mouse, screen, printer. Basically, it is only the processing which is virtualised. Your box will become some imaginary thing in the sky.
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