Thunderbird/Mail.app + IMAP = Bliss

For a long time I’ve been using email applications via a web browser. In fact, for the most part aside from when I almost had to, I would never use an email application (Outlook, Thunderbird, Mail.app) in order to manage my email. I’m writing this post however, as a changed man truly enlightened to the benefits of using an email management application on my desktop instead of in the browser.

Let me start out by saying that the two applications I use are Thunderbird on my Windows PC’s and the default Mail.app in OS X. Both are set to link into my Gmail account via the IMAP support that Google added not too long ago. Honestly, without IMAP I would be very remiss to make this switch at all. What IMAP does it makes it so any changes to your email in your email application will be instantly reflected server-side. For example, if I’m using IMAP and I delete a message in Thunderbird the message will also be deleted when I login to my Gmail account in Firefox. If I was using POP when I deleted the message in Thunderbird it would still be there when I logged into my account in Firefox. This applies to other things too of course – showing read/unread messages, an updated “sent” folder, etc.

So why Thunderbird and not Outlook or Vista’s Windows Mail? Well they’re slow. Thunderbird works well with IMAP and is basically seamless (same for Mail.app on the mac) whereas just trying to open a message via IMAP in Outlook can take up to a minute or two. I may not have had everything configured correctly though (and if I didn’t let me know how to fix this!). Another nice thing is that I can use the same version of Thunderbird on multiple platforms – both XP and Vista. Finally, Thunderbird has an add-on for a calendar, and then an add-on for that add-on to integrate Google calendars into the Calendar. So now I have my Google mail and my Google calendar in one spot, easily accessible.

Mail.app doesn’t have a calendar right in it, but of course the mac comes with iCal which also integrates nicely with Google calendars. One thing that Mail.app has is stylish looks. That’s not to say Thunderbird is ugly, but as it goes with most comparisons of applications between Windows and Mac – the Mac one is generally more pleasing to the eye. Other than that it does the same thing that Thunderbird does more or less.

So this is all well and good, but what’s the point behind making this switch? I’ll list some of the benefits. First of all, I can have my email program open at all times so that I’m constantly alerted of new messages without having to go back an check a web browser. Second, because my browser of choice on the PC is Firefox still, and Firefox tends to be a little bit of a memory hog when it’s open for any length of time, it ends up being a little easier on my machine. Finally, without having a local copy Google basically owns my email. What I mean by that is if I only interact with my Gmail account in a web browser my email is only ever stored up on their servers. What if the internet goes down? I’m basically up a creek. However, using an email application I can have a local copy that can be accessed even without an internet connection.

So give it a shot, you might just like the switch! It’s pretty convenient to have one application to go to to get all you need – new email messages, your calendar, even a to-do list, all without having to manage multiple websites in a browser. This is one change I’m glad I made.

PS - As my continued search for the perfect blogging tool on my mac continues I must let you know that this post was written in Ecto. So far I’ve tried MarsEdit and AirPress as well. The last client I know of that I want to try is Journler, but since it’s not really a dedicated blogging tool I’m going to assume that Ecto’s for me since it’s the one I’ve liked the best so far. If you know of another Mac-specific blogging client that’s Wordpress capable please let me know in a comment!

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