2013-08-06

Mail Client for Gmail - Firefox

Since Evolution mail & calendar is moved to new (Ubuntu) Gnome and
Debian squeeze version (which i really like) not available and also adapted version for Mint is not good...

Thunderbird - I used for half a year and its so bad that I never comeback to it...

I did not search very long for other mail apps but as I know that is pretty much all for Linux...
Except using browser, and obviasly google impruved web mail very much.
So I decided to try it out!

But!

I think and I state:  Email and Internet browsing - should not be together!

Notion that you browsing internet while logged in could lead
to many speculation what goes in background at that time...
I leave speculation  for others...
I'm just gonna avoid it.

So I work out the solution.


The solutions is simple, use two users. Run Firefox from some other user only for Gmail and Internet browsing leave to main desktop user.

My example is for Linux.
I believe it can be done for Windows Seven to, if You get the idea, follow link below:
sevenforums.com

Step 1:
For example my Deskotp user that i'm currently working on is called "user".
Create a new user "gmailclientfirefox", from grapical inteface "Users and Groups", set password and etc.

Step 2:
Create script file "gmail.bash"

su --login -c "/usr/bin/firefox" -s /bin/sh gmailclientfirefox


To be secure I set file permissions read&execute for owner only

-r-x------ 1 user user   382 Aug  5 23:41 gmail.bash


Set sudo exception for the script or in other words allow run script without password:

Add line at the end of the file "/etc/sudoers"

user ALL = NOPASSWD: /path/to/gmail.bash


Step 3:
Create launcher:
Find & download png image for gmail launcher icon.



Double click launcher. Go to gmail & log in. If you done working with email just close the window.
Second time just double click again and there is your mail!


I added launcher next to menu:




To not confuse which Firefox for Internet browsing and which is for Gmail
I change Firefox settings, remove all the top menu bars.
It looks like this:





I'm a Firefox fan, so I did it with Firefox. Google chrome have one advantage, there are some feature - can access mail even offline, did not try.