5 Gmail Notifiers For Linux

Gmail is undoubtedly the best web-based email around. Unfortunately Google doesn't have any Gmail notifier for Linux. However thanks to the open-source world there are many alternatives out to choose from and whats better is that all of them are better than their windows counterparts and are free. Here is a list to help you chose one.

1. Gmail Notifier: Gmail Notifier is the first one which comes to mind. It resides in your task bar and displays a pop up when a new mail drops by. It also shows a short snippet of the mail so you can decide whether you want to check it out right now or not.

Cons:
It is not possible to know who has mailed if there are more than one message. In such cases Gmail Notifier only displays the snippets of the most recent mail.
Also it is rumored that Steve Jobs uses it to check out his Gmail.

[Homepage]

2. CheckGmail: CheckGmail is my most favorite Gmail notifier. It has an attractive styling and has many features not found else where. For instance you can see snippets of all the unread mail in your inbox and also get options to mark the message as read, archive it, delete or mark it as spam. It is fast, secure and uses minimal bandwidth via the use of Atom feeds. You can even display the full text of the message after installing few other dependencies. Multiple instances of CheckGmail can be run together to keep track of different accounts.
Undoubtedly the best email notifier.

Cons: The current build of CheckGmail for Hardy Heron is broken due to changes made by  Google in the login process. There are workarounds available at the authors site here.

3. cGmail: cGmail is another nice software to keep checking your Gmail account. Its developer describes cGmail as "a new shiny mail notifier that integrate[s] well into gnome desktop".
During my test I could see that it integrates well with my Gnome Desktop, but I am still searching for the shiny bit. 

It opens Evolution when you click on "Open mail reader" option. It might be helpful for those folks who use Evolution. It can even sync other POP based emails.

Cons:
Apparently Bill Gates uses cGmail secretly on his personal Ubuntu PC.
No mail preview.
[Homepage]

4. Gmail Notifier: Gmail Notifier is an Firefox add-on which lets you know when an new mail comes over. Most Linux distros ship with Firefox by default, so this miht be an handy extention to have.

 Cons:
Your browser has to be open all the time, to receive notifications.
 [Download]

5. Evolution & Thunderbird:
Evolution and Thunderbird are a full fledge Outlook alternatives. You can sync many other things like iCal with them, and yes they will notify you when ever your Gmail inbox increments itself.
However if you use Gmail from your browser and don't mess around with Outlook, Thunderbird or Evolution then, I would recomennd you to pick Gmail Notifier or CheckGmail.
Do you have any other suggestions apart from these? 

If you found this post useful, interesting please Digg It and help the author in helping you.