[jhollington]

Originally Posted by TenFour

I was thinking about the situations where you don't have Internet access and it is helpful to be able to access all your email in a desktop client. For example, when on a plane, on the boat, or just stuck someplace without a good Internet connection and no phone service. You might need to get to a copy of your airplane ticket in an airport without Internet access, or you might just want to be able to write an email home while on the train or bus. So, I thought, that makes a desktop client useful to have.

These are the main reasons why I've always used a desktop e-mail client. The closest I ever came to webmail-only was when I was heavily into using Gmail, and I took advantage in those days of Gmail's "offline" mode which uses a browser cache for recent stuff. Sadly, that doesn't work so well on mobile, but Gmail's mobile apps do provide some degree of caching (moreso on Android than iOS).

Not to mention that actual e-mail apps are almost always easier to work with on a mobile device than a web browser interface.

But then I thought of the negatives. All of your email, or at least a good chunk of it, will be stored on a local device that could break, be stolen, or be lost while traveling.

Well, the obvious solution to this is to use an IMAP e-mail client. Then your e-mail isn't stored only on your device. If your device breaks or you lose it while travelling, it's not really going to matter whether you're using webmail or not as you'll still need to find another device to access your email, but as long as you're using IMAP, which mirrors what's on the server, you'll still have webmail. It's really the best of both worlds in this case.

If your computer security is weak and your emails are not encrypted that could be a security headache. These days you even have to worry about border guards snooping into your laptop and phone.

For those who are concerned about such things, it's a valid point. Keep in mind, though, that unless you're exceedingly careful to log out of all of your services before crossing the border, your e-mail accounts will still be accessible from your browser. This is even more of an issue on a mobile device.

Frankly, if you're that concerned about border inspections, you're better off to wipe your device entirely before crossing the border, and then reload it when you land at your destination. Of course, there's also a downside to that if you're using a newer device... When returning home, customs officials are more likely to think you bought it elsewhere and are trying to smuggle it back in.