Open Source AJAX Webmail 311
scrasher writes "It seems AJAX webmail is all the craze. Right on the heels of both Microsoft and Yahoo launching beta versions of their new AJAX webmail clients, an Open Source startup RoundCube has released an alpha of a GPLed AJAX webmail client. While there are still many features missing (like search!), the demo they have is completely cross-browser compliant and overall very impressive."
Re:Cross-browser? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Buggy (Score:3, Insightful)
Double click.
It's not so much buggy as it needs some serious HCI help. Web applications should NEVER require double clicks, and even in regular applications they should be used only in very specific circumstances.
On the bright side, the application is very pretty. (Which is more than can be said for other OSS Webmail like SquirrelMail.)
1 reason : Handheld (Score:3, Insightful)
Ultra-light hand held clients.
Like a lot of other people, I do use my Palm to surf the web.
Some browser for Palm don't have all the bells and whistle like full Javascript etc.
For some application, like E-Mails, there's (thankfully) still alternate ways to use content that are handheld friendly : E-Mail POP/IMAP software.
But there other application that are only accessible from the website, like train timetables. And if the website is "Best viewed with Explorer, Optimized for 1024x768", or only tested against mainstrem browsers (FireFox, Safari, IE), you're out-of-luck when you need to quickly check when you next train arrives. (I have luck, our nationnal train company has a light-browser friendly website [www.cff.ch]).
Re:Cross-browser? (Score:3, Insightful)
That's ridiculous. JavaScript may be a standard, but that doesn't mean that you should expect every user's browser to support it. How about blind people using screen-reader? How about search engines? Don't you want them to be able to read your page? (Well, perhaps not if it's personal email sitting behind a login screen.)
And may I remind you that the whole basis of AJAX - XMLHttpRequest [wikipedia.org] - is NOT a standard. Don't you want your site to work on all the new cell phones coming out that a lot of people will soon be using to browse the web and read email? How about hand-held devices?
Gracefully degrading is a best practice for a lot of good reasons. And frankly, it's not that difficult, if you apply the principles of unobtrusive JavaScript [google.com].
alt tags (Score:2, Insightful)
Nice to see (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Zimbra (Score:1, Insightful)
It's more than that. Outlook Web Access was the whole reason Microsoft developed the XMLHTTP object.
Actually, XMLHTTP in IE is implemented using ActiveX but it doesn't have to be (Mozilla's equivalent XMLHttpRequest is a run-of-the-mill JavaScript object).