I think I used Nutscrape and Eudora and Outlook Express variously with late OS 6 thru 9 and have used Mail.app with OSX ever since. No need for a third party client. I only used webmail for throwaway addresses historically but now use google for lots of things, esp. financial and shopping. Gmail is easy to set up to POP through to my mail.app client that I only have to use the web interface if I'm looking for an old mail message.

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting