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### Author:  [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emtar_KronJonDerSohn)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2013, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-changing/666190/9 "2013-08-14T12:34:00Z")
Surely you could connect outlook or another email program to your gmail account and have any interface you like?
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2013, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-changing/666190/10 "2013-08-14T12:42:58Z")
The bottom right menu in the compose window allows you to set full screen as the default size for the window.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-changing/666190/11 "2013-08-14T15:00:47Z")
> [@scr4](#):
>
> If you mean the tabbed view, I think you can go to the setting (gear icon) -\> configure inbox, and uncheck all except the Primary.
It took me a few days to realize that some of my messages were being sorted into other tabs and I missed seeing them in my main inbox. (I found it annoying that they changed the setting automatically. I would have preferred to have been given the chance to select the new option if I had preferred it.) I just changed the settings so all my messages appear in the main one. I may decide to change it back in the future if I decide my “social” messages are taking up too much of my inbox.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2013, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-changing/666190/12 "2013-08-14T15:08:02Z")
When I went to gmail for the first time after the change, it gave me a big box in the window explaining the changes, that I had to click out of.
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### Author:  [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-changing/666190/13 "2013-08-14T18:12:46Z")
Thanks.,… Still looking… Gah !!!
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-changing/666190/14 "2013-08-14T18:50:22Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#):
>
> Thanks.,… Still looking… Gah !!!
For what? You still haven’t told us what changes you want reverted back.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-changing/666190/15 "2013-08-14T18:54:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> When I went to gmail for the first time after the change, it gave me a big box in the window explaining the changes, that I had to click out of.
I must have missed it. Maybe I was in a hurry and didn’t look carefully at the new options.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-changing/666190/16 "2013-08-14T19:15:25Z")
How’s this for a total threadshit: Huh? I use gmail every day, and I’m not seeing ANY of the things being discussed in this thread.
Well, as I’ve mentioned umpteen times already, I run my browser with JavaScript disabled most of the time, which really simplifies a lot of things. Some sites behave quite nicely in this mode, and gmail seems to be one such. (Other sites are like crap with JS disabled, but a lot of those are crap in any case.)
I also have my gmail set up to run in “Basic HTML mode”, one of the options that I see down at the bottom of the message list page. This seems to turn gmail into a old-fashioned plain-old-plain-text e-mail system (sort of), kinda like we used to do in the 1980’s. It also seems to turn OFF that column of advertising links that I used to see at the right side of the screen. (Does gmail still do that? I haven’t seen it for several years now!)
What I get is a basic, no-frills e-mail service, by which I can send and receive plain-text messages. Simply, whatever I can type in plain English on my keyboard. I can also include links (but I have to hand-type them or cut-and-paste from somewhere, and I can still send and receive file attachments. It’s all I really need in an e-mail system.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-changing/666190/17 "2013-08-14T19:28:59Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> How’s this for a total threadshit: Huh? I use gmail every day, and I’m not seeing ANY of the things being discussed in this thread.
> …
> What I get is a basic, no-frills e-mail service, by which I can send and receive plain-text messages. Simply, whatever I can type in plain English on my keyboard. I can also include links (but I have to hand-type them or cut-and-paste from somewhere, and I can still send and receive file attachments. It’s all I really need in an e-mail system.
I’ve never forgiven UW for terminating development of pine. Ah, for the good old days of text based mail readers, gopher and Usenet.
Now get off my lawn!
Stranger
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### Author:  [@HumanMonkeyGod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HumanMonkeyGod)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2013, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-changing/666190/18 "2013-08-15T08:46:39Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> How’s this for a total threadshit: Huh? I use gmail every day, and I’m not seeing ANY of the things being discussed in this thread.
>
> Well, as I’ve mentioned umpteen times already, I run my browser with JavaScript disabled most of the time, which really simplifies a lot of things. Some sites behave quite nicely in this mode, and gmail seems to be one such. (Other sites are like crap with JS disabled, but a lot of those are crap in any case.)
>
> I also have my gmail set up to run in “Basic HTML mode”, one of the options that I see down at the bottom of the message list page. This seems to turn gmail into a old-fashioned plain-old-plain-text e-mail system (sort of), kinda like we used to do in the 1980’s. It also seems to turn OFF that column of advertising links that I used to see at the right side of the screen. (Does gmail still do that? I haven’t seen it for several years now!)
>
> What I get is a basic, no-frills e-mail service, by which I can send and receive plain-text messages. Simply, whatever I can type in plain English on my keyboard. I can also include links (but I have to hand-type them or cut-and-paste from somewhere, and I can still send and receive file attachments. It’s all I really need in an e-mail system.
You sort of asked and answered yourself there - using basic HTML means you don’t get all the fancy javascript stuff that new features depend on. I use basic as well for this reason, as well as it being faster (my connection can be iffy). These new changes are tiresome, not really improving the service or experience, and I’m sure causing a lot of people to consider moving.
So next question… any good free email services not part of the NSA ring?
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2013, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-changing/666190/19 "2013-08-15T11:10:29Z")
It certainly seems to me that Google developers don’t see the world the way most people do. We use a skinned version of Gmail as our company email, and since the changes I have had loads of people ask me “How do I do \? The button’s disappeared!”. Simple things like editing the subject of an email are now hidden away in dropdown menus with the only clue to their existence being a tiny triangle.
I’m quite used to it by now but even now I sometimes find myself doing the annoying “menu hunt” for a function that I know is in there somewhere.
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### Author:  [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-is-changing/666190/20 "2013-08-15T15:32:26Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> How’s this for a total threadshit: Huh? I use gmail every day, and I’m not seeing ANY of the things being discussed in this thread.
>
> Well, as I’ve mentioned umpteen times already, I run my browser with JavaScript disabled most of the time, which really simplifies a lot of things. Some sites behave quite nicely in this mode, and gmail seems to be one such. (Other sites are like crap with JS disabled, but a lot of those are crap in any case.)
>
> I also have my gmail set up to run in “Basic HTML mode”, one of the options that I see down at the bottom of the message list page. This seems to turn gmail into a old-fashioned plain-old-plain-text e-mail system (sort of), kinda like we used to do in the 1980’s. It also seems to turn OFF that column of advertising links that I used to see at the right side of the screen. (Does gmail still do that? I haven’t seen it for several years now!)
>
> What I get is a basic, no-frills e-mail service, by which I can send and receive plain-text messages. Simply, whatever I can type in plain English on my keyboard. I can also include links (but I have to hand-type them or cut-and-paste from somewhere, and I can still send and receive file attachments. It’s all I really need in an e-mail system.
So you’re kind of like that guy in _The Matrix_ who could look at the screen of scrolling characters and know what’s going on. 😉
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