Gmail to get IMAP support

by Zef Hemel

Gmail will be rolling out IMAP support to all its users over the next few days. This is great news to some. Currently I’m using my host’s IMAP server and read mail in Mail.app (Apple’s mail client), so I probably won’t use it much. However, it is great news for Gmail users especially those who want to read mail on their phones (which do not support Java).

I checked and I don’t have IMAP on my account yet, but there are a few things that I wonder about how you can map the IMAP model (folders containing messages) with Gmail’s model (conversations that can have one or more labels). The conversation part I get, each message in a conversation becomes a separate message in IMAP, but how about labels mapping to folders? There are some answers on the Gmail help site, but still I wonder. The problem is that in IMAP, generally, one message is in one folder. However, a conversation in Gmail can have multiple labels. When you login to Gmail through IMAP, you will see the labels as if they were folders. According to this, you can add multiple labels to one message by copying them to another folder. This means that messages will appear in different folders. There’s an “Inbox”, there’s an “All mail” folder and a folder for each label. So if I have a message in my inbox, labeled as “Work” and “Paper”, it will be in 4 IMAP folders: Inbox, All mail, Work and Paper. I wonder, how do IMAP clients deal with this? Will they recognize that these are one and the same message? I’m not an IMAP expert but do they have these messages have unique ids so you they are recognizable as copies? Or will this message appear 4 times in my search result when I search for it in my mail application? Because that would be kind of stupid.

Rectification: Forced Linux

by Zef Hemel

Only minutes after my post about some advantages I found about Linux over Mac I already started receiving comments that OS X does, in fact, have all the features I mentioned. In Finder, if you start typing a name, it will go to that file or folder (this, apparently, even works in iTunes — I was so sure I tried that and was always frustrated that it didn’t work, but it does), and you can, indeed, set the exact path where you want to save any file.

Anyway, I’m back in OS X now. Parallels works again with networking and I’m compiling my stuff inside a virtual machine. It’s not perfect, but it works. The reason for the switch back to Mac OS X was that it was easier to get my new 24″ Dell screen and new Mighty Mouse to work there. I have an extended desktop now. One laptop screen (13″ 1280×800) and a 24″ TFT monitor (24″ 1900×1200). It’s amazing. So much more room for my Emacs ;)

My new screen
(Click for larger version)

The wireless mighty mouse I got is ok. I have to get used to it a bit. The scrolling works nicely, I can left- and right-click now. The buttons on the side (the squeezing) is something I don’t use. You really have to squeeze for it to respond. But all in all, it’s not as bad as I heard people say.

Forced Linux

by Zef Hemel

For my work — oh yeah right, I didn’t officially announce that I started yet, but I’m a Ph.D. student now, more on that later — I got a new MacBook. After a few days of struggle however, it appeared that the software that we use (Stratego/XT), still has some issues on Mac OS X. For a week or so I “solved” this problem by installing Linux in a virtual machine (Parallels) and SSH-ing into that to compile my stuff. Not an ideal solution.

A week later, the networking stopped working in the virtual machine. Long story short, I installed Linux on my MacBook (dual boot) and am now working in Linux all day.

That sucks, right? Having a cool MacBook and working in something like Linux all day, while you could be using shiny OS X.

Well, it turns out, it’s not so bad. In fact, the MacBook makes a pretty good Linux laptop. I am running Ubuntu (first feisty, but now upgraded to the gutsy beta) and mostly everything I need works. Networking works, the graphics card works (including cool effects if I wanted them), wireless network works, the built-in iSight works (in some applications), the Apple Remote that I can use to stop, pause forward my music or videos work. Printing works. Suspend worked for a bit, but does not in Gutsy (still have to look into that). So hardware wise it’s pretty ok. Syncing my phone is a bit more problematic.

Software wise it’s not too shabby either. On OS X I was using mostly open source software and web applications anyway (Gmail for e-mail, Google reader for RSS reading, Emacs for editing code and so on). I was surprised to find out how quickly you get used to annoying little things in OS X. For example, in the Finder, when I start typing I really want it to go to the folder that match the name I’m typing. So if I type “Pictures” I want that folder to be selected. This, in OS X and Windows too, does not work. It listens to the first character you press, but then stops. In Gnome (not only in “nautilus”, its finder/explorer) this does work, and it does work too in save and open dialogs. It’s very convenient. Another annoying thing in OS X that I forgot about was that when you save a file, very often you can only pick a few selected directories to store that file in — your “favorites” let’s say. You cannot select any other directory, but have to move the file afterwards. Don’t ask me why, but that’s how it is. At least, I have never found out how to change this behavior. On GNOME, this just works as expected, you can select any folder you like.

And last, but not least: virtual desktops. OS X has never officially supported this, but has programs that can do it. Still, it’s considered un-Mac-like (at least until OS X 10.5, when it’s a built-in feature), so you don’t use these things, you use Expose. On Linux, virtual desktops have been around since forever and I use them all the time (I have 6).

All in all, I’m not disliking this Linux thing at all. It’s not perfect. But it’s very acceptable. It’s Linux in a nice, white, beautiful box.