it's also a big FU to everyone accessing Gmail's web interface over geostationary satellite internet connections. i had to deal with that shit for a few months and HTML mode was the only way to ease the pain from how bad the latency can get. the "normal" view would hang like a mofo all the time.
Honestly, I don't use gmail much, but I really just want a normal inbox, folders, and rules I can define to filter stuff. Netscape E-Mail circa 1998 was all I ever wanted, and I still miss the PITA trying to get even close to that interface today.
Not quite, though. Gmail uses labels, but translates that to folders on IMAP. You can set your client to download the folders automatically, and if an email goes into a specific folder don't put it in the app's Inbox. Then you just check your inbox and folders just like you would on Gmail's webclient.
I can't speak for others, but I typically don't use email on the PC. When it is more convenient to use the PC, usually because of an attachment, I will log into the browser version.
Agreed. I've reverted to HTML mode recently when tethering from my phone. The signal is bad enough sometimes that it makes a world of difference. Gmail was virtually unusable until I realized HTML mode was still an option.
Really just time to bite the bullet and acknowledge that it is worth the hassle to switch away from a company that I don't like or trust.
The big tragedy there is the loss for the visually impaired. They can switch to a new email provider, but they will have to switch over any necessary emails such as subscription reminders and they will have to be able to download or transfer what might be a decade's worth of archived emails. That will likely be beyond some of them in terms of technical capability and possibly accessibility.
But then Google couldn't give two shits about the disabled.
Well that's not needlessly complex or anything... I'm sure all the visually impaired people will have no problem adopting that and it's two dozen key commands.