Looking At Thunderbird and Outlook as Gmail Clients

We compared Outlook 2010 + Google Apps Sync to Thunderbird 3.1.4 + Gmail Conversation View 1.2.4 + Google Contacts 0.6.33 + Lightening 1.0b2 + Provider for Google Calendar 0.7.1.

Both give you synchronized Gmail, Contacts and Cal in Outlook and Thunderbird respectively. The Thunderbird combo is better for a bunch of reasons including:

• Synching is almost instantaneous over broadband. Google Apps Sync for Outlook is painfully slow. If you get a lot of email it can easily take a couple of minutes waiting for the Google service to let you read new email - unless you leave Outlook running 24/7. That's a Google problem.
• MUCH better threaded view in the "reading pane". That's an Outlook problem.
• Thunderbird gives you more control over IMAP folder subscriptions if you care.

Of course none of this applies to you if you don't mind using a web page to use Gmail. I find using a desktop client like Thunderbird gives me a nice side-by-side treatment of the inbox contents and the conversation thread in a reading pane. The web UI makes you scroll up and down.

Google combines mail, cal and contacts synch into one plug-in, Google Apps Synch for Outlook. Using Thunderbird you have to install separate add-ons for these functions.