Best newbie email service for Mail.app?
July 8, 2010 2:07 PM Subscribe
What's the best service to have a bunch of users sign up for email accounts? I'll be teaching an intro to computers (Macs) class, and I'm sure people will want to use email. So, for people who don't already have an email address, I'll go through registering for an email account. But I really want to show them Mail.app so the service should have excellent IMAP support.
I've heard that AIM mail has excellent IMAP support but the choice of usernames is going to be awful.
GMail supports IMAP but requires a bit of tweaking to use easily with Mail.app
What else is there? Personally, I use MobileMe, but that's not free.
I've heard that AIM mail has excellent IMAP support but the choice of usernames is going to be awful.
GMail supports IMAP but requires a bit of tweaking to use easily with Mail.app
What else is there? Personally, I use MobileMe, but that's not free.
Best answer: Unless you are teaching this class to people who you know for certain are going to be using email at home and have a use for IMAP email, teaching them how to use Mail.app isn't something I'd put in an intro to Macs class. Is there a reason you're including it? For many people "intro to computers" is all about knowing when to click, double-click and right-click not for getting into comfiguring email programs [especially if you're teaching them in a lab and then they have to go home and do it themselves at home] or too much specific software stuff.
I've been teaching intro to computers classes [mostly to tech novices which may not be who you will be teaching] for a long time and while I really like Mail.app, there are enough odd issues teaching people how to use something that is not-webmail. Most specifcially, I'd be concerned about the SMTP issue for sending mail if they're using different ISPs from different places because they have laptops. If they don't have laptops I'd be concerned about them being able to repeat your instructions from home. And if you're looking for webmail that also has IMAP support, you're creating a new layer of complication explaining webmail and Mail.app to people.
So, sorry to be a downer about this, but I saw that your title is looking for a newbie email service and a newbie email service is generally not Mail.app, as great as it is for power users. That said, this Wikipedia page has a list of webmail providers and of the ones that offer IMAP, I've really liked fastmail the best [after gmail of course]
posted by jessamyn at 2:21 PM on July 8, 2010 [3 favorites]
I've been teaching intro to computers classes [mostly to tech novices which may not be who you will be teaching] for a long time and while I really like Mail.app, there are enough odd issues teaching people how to use something that is not-webmail. Most specifcially, I'd be concerned about the SMTP issue for sending mail if they're using different ISPs from different places because they have laptops. If they don't have laptops I'd be concerned about them being able to repeat your instructions from home. And if you're looking for webmail that also has IMAP support, you're creating a new layer of complication explaining webmail and Mail.app to people.
So, sorry to be a downer about this, but I saw that your title is looking for a newbie email service and a newbie email service is generally not Mail.app, as great as it is for power users. That said, this Wikipedia page has a list of webmail providers and of the ones that offer IMAP, I've really liked fastmail the best [after gmail of course]
posted by jessamyn at 2:21 PM on July 8, 2010 [3 favorites]
Basically what Jessamyn said.
posted by entropicamericana at 2:23 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by entropicamericana at 2:23 PM on July 8, 2010
Best answer: Gmail is your best bet . you dont even need to teach them the mail.app . gmail can be reached via web browser from anywhere .
posted by majortom1981 at 2:41 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by majortom1981 at 2:41 PM on July 8, 2010
Best answer: Oh, yeah, gmail.
When we kids first set my mom up with email, she was on the phone with tech support constantly messing about with SMTP servers and blah blah and "Do you use POP or IMAP?" "Neither, I drink coffee." and oh she hated it. She didn't deal with that side of things enough for any of the jargon to stick.
Then, I set her up on gmail. She has never had an email question since.
If these are people so new to computers that they do not yet have email, you don't want to try to teach them anything about IMAP or mail.app. Their eyes will glaze over.
Perhaps use gmail to show them the basics of email, and mention that there are these desktop clients that do other things as a side-topic, not the main thrust.
posted by chazlarson at 3:15 PM on July 8, 2010
When we kids first set my mom up with email, she was on the phone with tech support constantly messing about with SMTP servers and blah blah and "Do you use POP or IMAP?" "Neither, I drink coffee." and oh she hated it. She didn't deal with that side of things enough for any of the jargon to stick.
Then, I set her up on gmail. She has never had an email question since.
If these are people so new to computers that they do not yet have email, you don't want to try to teach them anything about IMAP or mail.app. Their eyes will glaze over.
Perhaps use gmail to show them the basics of email, and mention that there are these desktop clients that do other things as a side-topic, not the main thrust.
posted by chazlarson at 3:15 PM on July 8, 2010
Best answer: I use my gmail account with Mail via POP. Does it really matter? That said, my mother finds it FAR TOO COMPLICATED to set up her gmail account that way, and only ever uses the webmail. She is usually happy with this, so, it's fine. I'd be tempted to go with 'here is some webmail, if you want to set it up in Mail here are the instructions, apart from that remember not to leave your account logged in on shared computers kthx'.
posted by Lebannen at 3:27 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by Lebannen at 3:27 PM on July 8, 2010
Response by poster: It will be three classes("101", "102", "103"): each meets 3 times for two hours each. I was hoping that in the first class, I could teach people to use the web and sign up for an account then those who enrolled into the second class could use Mail.app.
The reason I wanted to show off Mail.app was 1) because of its cool integration with the OS X system. Neat things with Address Book and such and 2) quite a few members of my Mac Users Group own more than 1 computer and want the same email on both and that's why I was looking at IMAP.
posted by RandyWalker at 3:44 PM on July 8, 2010
The reason I wanted to show off Mail.app was 1) because of its cool integration with the OS X system. Neat things with Address Book and such and 2) quite a few members of my Mac Users Group own more than 1 computer and want the same email on both and that's why I was looking at IMAP.
posted by RandyWalker at 3:44 PM on July 8, 2010
Response by poster: Do you think then that I should just do Gmail+POP and forget "What if I have more than one computer I want to check my email on" scenarios?
posted by RandyWalker at 8:32 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by RandyWalker at 8:32 PM on July 8, 2010
Best answer: I really think your heart is in the right place with this, but checking email on more than one computer is sort of what webmail is for. If they want to download and check email while offline, on more than one computer, that would be a killer application for Mail.app.
posted by jessamyn at 8:37 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by jessamyn at 8:37 PM on July 8, 2010
Best answer: I'm 99% sure that Mail's wizard (under 10.6.4) sets up Gmail as an IMAP account.
That being said...a 101 course? Yeah, webmail via google, not OSX mail. Mention it; but not use it.
posted by filmgeek at 3:13 AM on July 9, 2010
That being said...a 101 course? Yeah, webmail via google, not OSX mail. Mention it; but not use it.
posted by filmgeek at 3:13 AM on July 9, 2010
Response by poster: Signing up for the account would be 101, using a desktop client would be for the next course 102 :)
posted by RandyWalker at 7:57 AM on July 9, 2010
posted by RandyWalker at 7:57 AM on July 9, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by nogero at 2:12 PM on July 8, 2010