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

[Linda]

On 9/30/08 12:30 PM, Andrew T. Lynch wrote:

> 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.

> 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.

The things you list are not benefits to me, but thank you for going through
them -- at least I understand now what other people might consider the
benefits of IMAP, and can see why I didn't recognize them as 'benefits' when
I read the definition. Very helpful!

~Linda