Windows 8 Mail Leaves Users Pining For the Desktop — or Even Their Phones

jbrodkin writes "The e-mail client in Windows 8 is the shell of a potentially good application — but Microsoft hasn't given it the proper care it deserves. With less than a month before Windows 8 hits RTM, Mail is a mess that doesn't support IMAP, can't connect to servers with self-signed certificates, and lacks basic features like flagging messages for followup. Metro Mail is feature-deficient compared not just to other desktop and tablet apps — it's behind Microsoft's own phone platform. Whether used on a tablet or desktop, this in-depth look concludes that Metro Mail in its current form will have users pining for a real desktop application."

Re:Ready? Oops! Oh noooooOOOO!

[couchslug]

I only use online mail, but via Thunderbird so I can ignore the asstastic web pages and don't have to view ads.

Online mail is fine, but better in a conventional format with a portable archive.

Thunderbird Portable rocks for this, and you can copy the whole program folder to DVD for read-only archiving which won't be changed by sync'ing online.

Re:desktop mail client?

[Un pobre guey]

Where do you work? In cubeland, practically everybody has been forced to use MS Outlook for about 20 years or however long it's been around. If their phone can't use Outlook properly, boy, they in a heap o' trouble.

Re:So you're telling me

[Grishnakh]

It's about the movies, not the series. Please turn in your geek card.

It's not entirely accurate, at least IMO, but it's pretty close:
1) ST:TMP - boring, boring crap
2) Wrath of Khan - probably best ST movie ever, though the bit about a nebula being a short distance from a planet at sublight speed irks me.
3) Search for Spock - underrated IMO, not as good as II and IV but not horrible.
4) Voyage Home - great
5) so horrible that many fans disclaim its existence; William Shatner directed this abomination, but never again directed a major motion picture
6) Undiscovered Country - excellent
7) Generations - big disappointment, though not nearly as bad as ST5
8) First Contact - excellent, great triumph for director Jonathan Frakes (Riker)
9) Insurrection - pretty disappointing, esp. since it was also directed by Frakes and didn't measure up at all to First Contact
10) Nemesis - this is where the trend totally breaks down, because it's even-numbered but it sucked. It had some great visuals and effects (I liked the part about Picard piloting the small Reman ship), but otherwise it was pretty lame. This movie was also a big flop and ended the whole Star Trek movie franchise for a while until it was rebooted with entirely new actors in JJ Abram's movie (and upcoming sequel).

Summy wrong, it does use IMAP

[cryptizard]

It only lets you set up accounts for Exchange, Hotmail and Gmail right now, but it definitely does support IMAP. If you add a Gmail account to it and then disable POP retrieval it still works. Disable IMAP and it suddenly doesn't. I imagine they will add the option for arbitrary servers before it gets released, but even if they don't it will satisfy 98% of the people that use it (those without Outlook and who don't know what Thunderbird is).

Re:So you're telling me

[Grishnakh]

You have your opinions, but most Star Trek fans don't share them, as evidenced by reviews and box-office figures. ST1 didn't do that well. ST6 and 8 both did well. ST4 got great reviews and is easily the most popular of all the ST movies.

BTW, there's nothing about watching endless footage of the Enterprise slowly going into a giant cloud, with some wacky 70s sound effects, that "requires you to think". It's just boring.

Re:So you are telling me

[LurkerXXX]

It's has been available as a public beta for a few months. I tried it out and hated it.

Re:So you're telling me

[couchslug]

Thunderbird gets rid of the webmail UI and other bullshit quite nicely.

Portable works great on Windows and backing up the whole program folder to DVD for portable archive love is easy.

If I switch ISPs, no problem.

Cross-platform too.