Do you use an email client?

[brokenman]

How many people use an online email service and how many use a local email client?

[wread]

I guess online means using a navigator and aclient using a separate application..

I think mail clients belong to the past; why an extra application when you need an application to navigate?

Regards, Jay!

[Ed_P]

And how many people use both? Me, for instance.

An ISP for home, an ISP for work, and several online email accounts. All of which have browser access and for the home one I do use an email client, SeaMonkey.

[brokenman]

I added the option for 'both'. Sorry, I think it zeroed the results. There were only two votes both for online services anyway.

[donald]

At home, webmail is good enough,
but at work I prefer a mail client, to have sorted the mails and archived on my hdd.

[Bogomips]

About 6 web mail. One changed format, making it not very easy to get at one's mail. Another has limit on nuimber of emails, and before limit reached increases the number with warnings about limit about to be reached. When limit reached all incoming mails rejected. This number also includes all spam sent to post box. Another for personal business on yahoo.com, but somehow or other that address has managed to end up on some black list. Cannot register on some sites.

Apart from that, one cannot any more have simple emails, but 'conversations', and this is enough to drive one round the bend. Just to have someone come and check the smoke alarm, should not be complicated. Becomes a conversation with a manager of the firm, and when a subordinate replies without a subject in heading, it becomes a different conversation. Can't just reply and fill in subject as 'reference number and address of residence'. Compose new email with requisite subject and send to manger's assistant. Now there is one more conversation which is new, and on top of that got thrown into new subjectless conversation with same message to manager's assistant. Gmail also has conversations unfortunately.

Before they were useful both for personal business and for anonymity, and as well flexibility on the move. Suppose be best for personal business to use a local client like SeaMonkey. Left now with two others that are anonymous for iffy web sites, and are not as yet inflexible, in allowing of simple utilization.

[brokenman]

I polled a group of 40 teenagers under the age of 15. More than 80% reported that they did not use email at all. They use various other social networking applications in it's place. Perhaps email is slowly decaying.

[sean]

I use both

But, until just last year I used only a Local email client.

At this time I use only POP3, along with my favorite "watcher/deleter" application "PoptrayMinus".

I may be very wrong in my assumption, and now off topic here, but it is my understanding that IMAC allows you to download your emails while retaining a copy with the ISP/mail-server for a period of time (30 days?). However you would still be bringing the email physically to your computer thus exposing the possibility of virus/malware/etc.

With PoptrayMinus, I can read my emails on the ISP/mail-server and download them or delete them without downloading(with the exception of attachments).

Just a safety concern, sorry for going off topic.

@ brokenman, in reference to the teenage email poll;

Here in the US, kids, and many adults, simply "text" with their smart-phones. The human physiology is changing fast, now with the permanent 85 degree down-turn/curve/bend in our necks. As you are probably aware this has resulted in the global closing of "theaters", because it is now next to impossible for folks to "look up at the big screen". Additionally, and also globally, more and more men have stopped wearing neckties simply because they can not "look up into the mirror" to see what they are doing. Just thought that bit of "important trivia" should be shared with all my friends here at Porteus.

(I saw a foreign movie last evening, and in the background a person had their head down and was obviously "phone-texting", so I suppose this phenomenon is also going global and can no longer be claimed by the US)

:-) Sean

[donald]

teenagers..(at the place where I live)..
they don't look around...they don't talk to each other...nor make phone calls..
always busy typing text-messages...
That's why we call them "smart-phone Zombies"..lol

[Ed_P]

You should poll those 50 teenagers and ask how many use Porteus, or any other Linux system. If it doesn't run on a cell phone they're not interested.

[Bogomips]

It's all to do with whatsapp, and Mark Zuckerber has cornered the market there. Also just seen s.o. in Russian section also dependent on it.

[THX2006]

I actually have both but I use Thunderbird 99% of the time so I voted "Local email client"
(from a different distro installed to hard drive)

[francois]

"smart-phone Zombies", I adopt. This is an epidemy. Really worst than ebola.

I try to constrict my email to two accounts both web-mail. One for the potential spam emitters and the other one for those I really want to get some news. I hate to have to deal with in house mail accounts.

However, how secure is my web email practice?

[donald]

Hi francois
Back in the days we wrote postcards..how secure was that?..;-)

My web-mail provider uses https...better than nothing...and my inbox, address book and layout-folder are always empty...if the account got hacked, nothing there.

If I had something important to send,I would encrypt it (on a 2nd PC),
transfer it to the I-net PC and send it as an attachment.

But for the daily / trivial communication...nope.

[brokenman]

Funny you mention the postcard thing. I sent one about two weeks ago! I remember a wise man telling me (in terms of security) that email is equal to writing a postcard, putting it on a string and walking through the business district area of a large town. Since then I can confirm that this is so. If you are not encrypting content then your emails can be read at the provider without your permission. Authorities just need half a valid reason and the provider will give them the info. Then there's the people who don't need provider consent. Encrypt, encrypt, encrypt ... unless you are sending a postcard.

Email is convenient, but I would prefer a point to point communication method where data didn't sit on a server somewhere.