I don't gmail
Sep 23, 2004, 08:29pm EDT
I was talking to a co-worker yesterday about email. She was telling me that I should switch to using gmail[1] for my work email even though I’m pretty happy using pine. She was also a pine user for many years but thinks that gmail is much better than pine and tried to convince me to switch. Hmm, let’s compare the two.
conversations
Gmail does a pretty good job of stacking related messages together for easy browsing of a single thread. The closest thing to this in pine is threading email messages, but I don’t actually view my messages threaded. I guess this is nice, but as long as people follow convention and bottom post, it’s not a big deal.
Anyway, gmail is the winner with this feature, so a point for gmail.
labels
Gmail doesn’t have folders, it has labels that allow you to tag your emails. Except, I don’t use folders to organize my email. I just put it all into one folder and use search to find emails. Labels require that I tag things which isn’t something that I want to do.
Nobody wins, this is a tie.
search
Although I am able to search my messages, since it’s not integrated into pine, it’s a bit more inconvenient. Also, I’m not able to filter quite as well as gmail (e.g., filter by time). My search also isn’t as fresh, it’s only updated once every 4 hours so if I want to find a recent message, I can’t.
Point to gmail for having better search.
storage space
Gmail provides 1gb of storage.[2] Pine provides me with as much hard drive space as I have, which is more than 1gb.
Finally, I give a point to pine.
accessibility
By accessibility, I mean my ability to check my email from anywhere, not accessibility. Gmail requires that I have a modern browser, pine requires that I have an SSH client. Both are ubiquitous that I don’t think it makes much of a difference to me.
Looks like another tie.
usability
Hmm, this is a tough one. Gmail is better at some things, like email’s with links in it, and worse at other things, like emails with attachments since I have to download or upload attachments through the web interface. Both have pretty crypic keyboard shortcuts, but at least pine lists them. Both have filters that allow you to visually mark messages. Gmail only provides a star while pine lets me cusomize colors (e.g., bug come in one color, blog comments in a different color, etc). It seems like pine is a bit better overall.
I am awarding another point to pine.
writing email
One of the major benefits of using pine is that I can write emails using any text editor. That is, it allows me to edit emails using joe. Gmail uses a web form, which has the problem of losing my email if the browser window crashes.
Pine gets another point.
Ok, I think I’ll stop now. The final score is:
Gmail: 2
Pine: 3
Pine wins, for now…
[1] Well, not actually gmail, but something like gmail that is available internally (and secure).
[2] Actually, I bet there is no limit for work email. Whatever.
DC at Sep 24, 2004, 03:31am EDT
Actually, there’s a filtering feature with gmail that works better than just using labels alone. However, you can use procmail (or some such) with pine to get a similar effect. Gmail has it built in and is easy to use, but procmail allows a little more control and probably provides more options (like custom spam filtering). Depending on which you care more about, there’s another point.
The main disadvantage to Gmail, which may not be an issue in the internal one, is the lack of an easy way to make email lists. That and no way (that I’ve found) to store a draft of an email. Let’s face it, storing drafts is extremely important if you’re ever sending an email you want to think about before you send it.
John Bethencourt at Oct 07, 2004, 07:06pm EDT
Dude, use mutt. Seriously. If pine beats gmail at all, then mutt beats gmail by a landslide.
Giorgio Lando at Nov 19, 2004, 09:04pm EST
What do you think about my way? I have a gmail account and gmail is now offering POP3 access. I manage my account through Mutt on my workstation and through the web interface when I am abroad or when I need the search facilities. A nice compromise. :)
Someone at Oct 22, 2004, 08:34pm EDT
“pine requires that I have an SSH client”
pine doesn’t require anything, that’s up to you how you access your box (but SSH is safer than telnet/rsh).
“Gmail is better at some things, like email’s with links in it”
I don’t have any experience with gmail (but what I’ve heard of it I won’t use it), but pine can be setup to start a browser for you (url-viewers=/usr/bin/lynx in ~/.pinerc). I use lynx with pine, but you could set Mozilla Firefox or whatever your favorite browser is.