Why I don't like the new GMail

I've switched to the new GMail because, well, they will eventually force me to anyway, so I figured I had better jump on it so I can support the folks at work.

First of all, let me make this clear: I hate the new GMail.  There. I said it. Now, brass tacks time:

For starters, I had to switch to "compact view" so that I wouldn't have a bunch of wasted space on my screen.  One of the things I liked most about GMail was the simple, clean interface. No frills, no nonsense. Bye-bye.  Now, we have views with more white space between messages than the actual length of the messages themselves.  Luckily, GMail must have known some people didn't care for all that "breathing room" and gave us an option that is close to the original layout (though not exactly).

I hate CHAT. I don't use it. I want to be able to turn the dumb thing off.  Again, it is a matter or screen real estate.  I'd rather have my label list down the side than have that dumb chat gizmo there, or anywhere.  Users should be allowed to turn that off.

I hate cute little icons where words work perfectly well.  maybe it is because I like to write and enjoy reading.  Maybe it is part of the whole 'streamlined' thing I enjoy.  Whatever the reason, I *HATE* stupid little icons that are supposed to represent the tasks I want to perform.  See them up there?  The irony is that you have to hover over them so that a TEXT BOX will appear to tell you just what you are supposed to do with them. Stupid.  I like my words. I like menu systems.  One of peeves with Office 2007 was the whole "icons on ribbons" thing. UGH.  Show me the words that tell me what I want to know, what I need to do.  I think cutesy little icons just waste space and waste time because I have to now figure out what each one does or means or represents.  have we fallen so far as a society that we can't have actual WORDS anymore!?  Soon, our writings (electronic or otherwise) will revert back to cave drawings - icons that show and tell our life stories.  instead of Facebook, we'll have.. Imagebook or Iconbook or Cavecarvings or some other wordless means of "communicating."  Supposedly, a picture's worth a thousand words.  In this case, it barely even covers one.

I am not a fan of the whole 'theme' thing. I never have been.  I like certain things neat and clean, no frou frou. Email is one.  i want my email to be...(GASP! SHOCK AND AWE!) **EMAIL**  I don't want little dancing smiley faces in my emails, I don't want a pink background with falling hearts from the sky.  I don't really even like the 'desktop' background I have in mine right now, but it was the easiest to look at for more than 5 minutes.

I know Google isn't switching it back, and that's fine.  Since we switched to Google Apps for our corporate mail system, I have to take what they give me - a certain drawback to going to "the cloud."  It is a drawback that no one talks about until after the fact. 

Oh, I know, in the scheme of life, this is petty and small and doesn't amount to a grain of rice for a starving child (go to freerice.com to help with that, though!!), but I am free to express myself.  And for that, I am eternally grateful to people like my Father, Grandfather, Uncle, and the other millions of people who have served in our military so that I *can* say what I feel.  The sacrifices made by those folks in uniform amount to much more than email interfaces, cloud computing, and even food on the table.  They served (and serve) OUR country for all the good, all the bad, all the freedoms, and all the choices we have as Americans.  I thank you all from the bottom of my heart, knowing full well that my petty rant is nothing but a grain of sand in the scheme of life.