If you have more than one email client, have you tested them to compare? See detail?

If it fails to be sent, ALL of them should give you a notice.

I’ve used a variety of clients for almost 18 years. Finally, web mail is good enough. Good bye to clients. I’ve found GMX to be one of the better web mail services.

@papayalily I know they all should. But I am looking for the ones that perform the best. Thanks for responding.
@UScitizen What is the common term for services that allow you to exchange email? If it is not web mail what are they? I thought they are all on the web, and provide mail service. (I wish I knew the emoticon for “confused”)
-What does GMX has or do that Gmail or Live/Hotmail etc., don’t? I am really just asking, I am not challenging.

I don’t compare them myself, I let Gizmodo and Engadget do it for me.

@papayalily do you use the Gmail, Yahoo kind or the other kind, Thunderbird etc. kind?
By the way could you answer my followup question? “What is the common term for services that allow you to exchange email? If it is not web mail what are they? I thought they are all on the web, and provide mail service”

I use Gmail and Thunderbird. Gmail almost always suits my needs, but I am trying to see if I can find the awesomeness in Thunderbird that so many say kicks Gmail’s ass.
So, if it’s Thunderbird, Outlook, Apple’s Mail, etc it’s called an email client. An email client, email reader, or more formally mail user agent (MUA), is a computer program used to manage a user’s email.
There are also Web-based email applications called webmail. Webmail has several advantages, including an ability to send and receive email away from the user’s normal base using a web browser, thus eliminating the need for an email client. Gmail, Yahoo!, and Hotmail are all examples of webmail.
You can usually receive webmail on an email client.

@papayalily
What is ”..the user’s normal base..”?

Email Applications
1) Clients (Thunderbird etc.) ......-based
2)....... (Gmail, etc) Web-based.
What goes in the blanks?

What does managed mean, in this context?

@flo
The user’s normal base is their usual computer, probably at their home.
1) various, there’s no one answer. They’re collectively referred to as email clients.
2)I’m not sure I understand.

Managed: Lets you read, compose, send, reply, forward, put in various folders, etc.

@papayalily I will try and ask th first part later,

The reason I asked about “Managed”, is I read your previous to last posting “An email client, email reader, or more formally mail user agent (MUA), is a computer program used to manage a user’s email.” And your last post “Lets you read, compose, send, reply, forward, put in various folders, etc.”
And I am thinking, that is what we get in the Gmail etc. ...I am trying to learn what distinguishes them from each other.

@flo The difference is whether you access them on the web by going to mail.google.com, or if you access them on your computer by opening up thunderbird or whatever.

@flo Put another way: If you totally lost your Internet connection AND you had, say, Gmail only and accessed it from the web through a browser, then you would not be able to read your Gmail mails. If you had used an email client AND set it up so that it collected the mail from your Gmail account, then you would be able to read your email up to the time your client last downloaded your messages and before you lost your Internet connection.

A client simply makes it easier to collect from a number of accounts in a short time rather than going to each individual account you may have on the web.

But as @papayalily pointed out a client is limited to your usual computer whereas webmail is from any computer through a browser so long as you remember user names and passwords.

Does this make it clearer?

@Andreas @flo And on the other hand, if your computer is down, you can just go to the library to read it if you have webmail. But if you have an email client and you’re not using it to view webmail, then you’re SOL.

@papayalily and @Andreas thanks.
I have to start by having the right terms. Just like Lemons and Grapefuits are both Cirus fruits, both kinds are called Email Applications? If it is Email Applcations, and Thunderbird is Client, because it is not web-based, (if is is not web-based what is it based on?), what do you call Google? I don’t mean what it is based on, because I know it is web-based, whatever that means. That is, if you had to put them in columns what word would go above Google?

@flo Gmail is a both webmail and a web-based email client. If you refer to Gmail as an email client, no one will argue with you. I honestly don’t know about Yahoo and Hotmail, though because they’re obsolete.
Don’t worry so much about the terms, though. You’re getting into territory many amateur techies don’t know. It’s partly because it’s often irrelevant unless you’re a developer/programmer, but also because the terms change so fast, and various things are combined to create a better program that fits into both categories and at the same time, neither.

@papayalily thanks for trying.
Is there anything that requires having your own computer? and your own an internet connection, as opposed to using a public computer?
When you say “based on your own computer” ...“an ability to send and receive email away from the user’s normal base using a web browser,”
”... a client is limited to your usual computer whereas webmail is from any computer through a browser”. (I think it is @Andreas I am quoting) Is your usual computer mean your subscription to internet connection?
When you are using Thunderbird what are you using, if not web browser? I don’t know what not using a browser means. Is it being off-line?

@flo Yes, email clients that aren’t webmail (so Thunderbird, Outlook, etc) require you to have your own computer.
A browser is Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or Opera – the program you use to surf the net. While you are not on these programs, your computer probably stays connected to the internet, depending if you’re on dial-up or not. This way, programs like Outlook, instant messengers, games, anti-virus softwares, etc can all continue to operate even when you aren’t looking up the lyrics to a song or watching YouTube or Fluthering. When you go offline, your computer isn’t connected to the internet in any way – you’ll probably have some sort of notification in the taskbar with a red x.

@papayalily I am glad you can see this is not just a theorothical thing for me. “email clients that aren’t webmail (so Thunderbird, Outlook, etc) require you to have your own computer.” Thank you.

@flo no problem. Most people ask these questions as they come up in their own lives, so it wad a safe bet that this wasn’t hypothetical. Feel free to ask me any other questions you have as well.

@papayalily Thank you. I have soooo many questions but I have to ask them as new questions because they might be removed as off-topic. But to continue with this one, if even when you are using Thunderbird you are on the web, why are Gmail etc. distinguished as “web-mail”, web-based mail”?

@flo The world wide web is limited to sites, such as www.fluther.com. But the internet can go much beyond just sites, using the connectivity to link instant messengers, games, etc.

@papayalily Great working definition of the difference between the WWW and the Internet. The Internet has been around since 1961, the WWW since 1994.

@flo I once had a similar problem as you do with the difference between an email client and web-based email, that when I wanted another email account I got Incredimail, which is a fancy client and not an email account. We do eventually get to understand the differences between the two.

@papayalily
@Andreas
Thank you both. I wish there was whatever you call what the Consumer Reports (I haven’t looked at one for a while) uses to tell us all the differences about each item, with the verical and horizontal columns. Is that called a spreadsheet? Please correct me if I am wrong That would be so handy.