[X4U] Can Apple's Mail pick up GMail?

[Christopher Rob JONES]

Hi,

>> So, if you access your email from more than one client, IMAP keeps it in
>> synch.  POP does not.  If you access your email from only one client, IMAP has
>> little if any benefit.
> 
> I "leave mail on server" for a period of time in my account prefs, and I get
> it on two different computers. When the period of time passes, mail on the
> server is deleted, making room for more, but anything I wanted to keep is
> retained on my computer.

Do you ever delete or move email ? If so than IMAP also synchronises all 
these actions. *Anything* you do to your email on machine, will be 
reflected on all others.

With your scheme above you have to repeat all actions on each and every 
machine. I guess to some this might be a good thing, as it is a backup 
scheme of sorts ;)

> 
>> The mail is kept on the server, which can fill up, but so can your home
>> machine. 
> 
> My computer's hard disk is a lot bigger than my email account allowance on a
> server. My email database is more than 10GB.
> 
>> And, with IMAP you always have the choice of moving messages off the server
>> into a folder "On My Mac", much as POP does.
> 
> Looks like that's an extra step to do what POP access does automatically, if
> I understand you correctly.

Again, that depends on the IMAP server you use. I use one that is very 
well maintained and backed up, so I don't need to worry about this 
myself at all. YMMV.

Chris