[downer96]

The thing that sucks about web mail is that when your browser closes, you might never see any of your messages again.

Let's say you get fired, due to a blazing inferno of inter-office politics at IniTrode. Let's say you are wrongfully fired. Let's say there was a damning e-mail sitting in your inbox to prove it.

Whoops! When you got fired, you lost access to your e-mail login. All your mail sits server-side now, and you have no proof of your transgression.

With an IMAP client, you can stay in the habit of retaining a stale cache of messages on your local machine. But if you drop that habit, in favor of a web interface, well ...beware of political lightning strikes. You might find yourself the victim of a lockout.

Everything disappears with a lost login, when it comes to the web interface. Not so with traditional e-mail clients.