# what type of program do you use to check your e-mail? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 2, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-program-do-you-use-to-check-your-e-mail/545343 "2010-07-02T20:48:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-program-do-you-use-to-check-your-e-mail/545343/41 "2010-07-06T05:52:57Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Is that an assumption, or did you hear that somewhere? Just an assumption, since Google services are usually pretty good. > [@](#): > > As far as the keyboard shortcuts go, there’s a way to turn them on. The issue for me wasn’t really the keyboard shortcuts, it’s that it takes a lot longer to view an e-mail message in a webmail window displayed by the browser than it does to view the same message in my mail client - especially for an e-mail containing pictures or attachments like .PDFs. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-program-do-you-use-to-check-your-e-mail/545343/42 "2010-07-06T06:09:20Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > Just an assumption, since Google services are usually pretty good. That section you quoted from my previous post sounded very snarky. It wasn’t intended that way at all, sorry it came out wrong… > [@](#): > > The issue for me wasn’t really the keyboard shortcuts, it’s that it takes a lot longer to view an e-mail message in a webmail window displayed by the browser than it does to view the same message in my mail client - especially for an e-mail containing pictures or attachments like .PDFs. Not sure about pictures and such. Outlook seems slow with general retrieving. Gmail has some oddities, like they are incredibly restrictive with sending .exes. They will let you start attaching it, but 20 minutes later when your huge file finishes, will tell you its disallowed. I prefer webmail, although my other experience is mostly limited to Outlook and maybe 5 seconds of Eudora. My experience may be colored by the fact that Outlook is undoubtedly retarded, maybe I should try Thunderbird or something. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-program-do-you-use-to-check-your-e-mail/545343/43 "2010-07-06T18:26:38Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > That section you quoted from my previous post sounded very snarky. I didn’t think it sounded snarky. > [@](#): > > Outlook seems slow with general retrieving. Well, like e-mail clients, it will first download the mail to your desktop machine, which will take a while. But once the copy has been made to your local hard drive, reading the e-mails is much faster in my experience than it is from having to transfer the e-mail from a remove server and then display it. Especially when I read e-mails at home, where I only have DSL. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-program-do-you-use-to-check-your-e-mail/545343/44 "2010-07-06T18:34:39Z")
To expand on Outlook’s slowness, it does the thing where the progress bar fills to 95%, and then just sits there forever. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to progress at all, so I have to cancel and try again. I guess switching between emails would make a difference, although I haven’t noticed to the level where it really bothers me. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-program-do-you-use-to-check-your-e-mail/545343/45 "2010-07-06T20:00:03Z")
Webmail (gmail) w/browser at home & on vacation Mail client (Outlook) at work. ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-program-do-you-use-to-check-your-e-mail/545343/46 "2010-07-06T20:25:35Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Personal Gmail: browser or iPhone client. > > Work mail: they force use to use Outlook. It sucks the big one.Each to their own, but that’s the reason I like it so much. Better than folders, as you can have more than one tag for email. So if I have an “Aunt Joan” tag and “Antique Clocks” tag, and Aunt Joan emails me about an antique clock, that email will be stored in both “folders”. > > I also use Gmail for file storage. We are e-mail twins. Everything you said here. ---
**Author:** ![breezman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@breezman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breezman)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-program-do-you-use-to-check-your-e-mail/545343/47 "2010-07-07T02:40:01Z")
I use a combination of Pine, mail.app, and iPad. I recently started using IMAP, which makes them work very well together. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-program-do-you-use-to-check-your-e-mail/545343/48 "2010-07-08T02:53:26Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > How do you manage your e-mail? > > Follow-up question: how many e-mail addresses do you use? Do you have all e-mails for different addresses forwarded to one account, or do you actually check several accounts? Mailplane at home, webmail on the road/at work when not on my own computer. I use 4 different email addresses - one for junk, one for serious use, one for vacation/airline deals and Netflix. I have a 4th that’s waiting in the wings once my current serious one hits the skids with spam. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-type-of-program-do-you-use-to-check-your-e-mail/545343.md?page=2)