I should first say that I use my email account for pretty much everything, and have thousands of emails across several folders. I also use it on my Mac, iPhone, and sometimes a second Mac, plus a beta OS X partition on my main Mac. So, issues that you don't care about are important to me, which will affect my answers.
First, Gmail's web interface, once you go to the basic page, is much easier to use. The iCloud web interface is usable, but is not as convenient and can be confusing. Reading messages isn't a problem, but setting up rules or aliases can get frustrating at times. Still, it is doable. Second, iCloud is really easy to set up. Gmail requires you to enter a whole bunch of settings, like any email account, and I've had no end of trouble sending ever since I enabled two-factor authentication. On the other hand, so long as you are on an Apple device, setting up iCloud mail is as easy as signing into your Apple account (which you'd likely do anyway) and ticking the "mail" checkbox. As soon as you do, your account is set up and your mail syncs over via IMAP. Third, Apple's IMAP implementation is normal. No "all mail" folder, no wondering if trashed messages were deleted or archived, no having tons of auto-saved in-progress messages filling up your drafts, no getting multiple copies of messages you had given multiple tags... Fourth, iCloud gives you your main address, plus three aliases you can use. My real iCloud address isn't mehg...@icloud.com, that's an alias. If I ever needed to, I could turn it off. Or, you can make an alias for work and one for home, or one for newsletters and online accounts, anything. While Gmail does let you modify your address with plus signs and periods, it does not let you use completely different usernames like iCloud does. There are other differences, and google will have them all covered, I'm sure. For you though, I think the biggest plus would be the standard IMAP, and the biggest minus would be the simple act of switching all your mailing list subscriptions and the address all your contacts use. On May 12, 2014, at 9:43 PM, Robert C <gone.to.da...@gmail.com> wrote: > Please, this is not an invitation to go off on the Gmail issues. > > I am not yet using the Mac for mail so am taking this time to research > options before I do the work. > > I know some of you have switched from Gmail to iCloud. How well is it > working and was it difficult to make the switch and set things up with iCloud? > > I use a Gmail IMAP account for email lists and currently running > Thunderbird in Windows. I have created rules and have had no problems with > that at all. I save the minimum number of emails, the rest get trashed weekly > and would hazard a guess that I probably have less than 1,000 emails. This > account will not be used on other devices, just the Mac. Have 2 other > accounts for that and neither are used for email lists so no rules necessary. > > Am interested in feedback on how things are going with your iCloud accounts. > > Quote of the nanosecond . . . > Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands become coated with > grease, your nose will begin to itch or you'll have to pee. > Robert & Annie Yanni ke7nwn > E-mail- > gone.to.da...@gmail.com > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- Have a great day, Alex Hall mehg...@icloud.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
