In your first post, you made a clear distinction between the interface and the server-side stuff. Your points 3-5 are all related to server-side stuff. With r

In your first post, you made a clear distinction between the interface and the server-side stuff. Your points 3-5 are all related to server-side stuff. With respect to those things, you can get the benefits of GMail using Gnus or any other mail client (by reading your mail over IMAP or even POP). (True, Gnus requires an initial configuration step -- maybe that counts as "administration" -- that the GMail web interface does not. But that's basically set-and-forget; it doesn't require the kind of monitoring or tweaking that running a mail server does.) As far as the interface itself goes, if GMail works for you, that's great. Personally, I want: 1) to be able to check my mail from a terminal 2) a lot of control over pre-processing of mail, especially in filters that sort messages into groups/folders/labels. I find that simple string-match filters are really limiting. 3) to be able to copy and paste code and other data into and out of my email (e.g., to create new TODO items in Org mode), without using the mouse 4) to have the option to automate tasks like (3) when they become too frequent or annoying to do by hand Different strokes, I guess. :)