Zoho Mail Desktop Lite - Electron-based mail reader

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webfork
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Zoho Mail Desktop Lite - Electron-based mail reader

#1 Post by webfork »

Background

So Zoho put out a local desktop mail client.

If you're familiar with the way application development has been going lately, it won't surprise you to learn that it runs on the Electron format. In short, this means it runs on top of a streamlined version of Google Chrome, which lets it be cross-platform and easily built from existing web development tools, but that it's going to be very resource hungry. Zoho's offline services are leaning hard on this toolset.

Steps:
  1. Download the installer
  2. Open with 7zip
  3. Navigate to $PLUGINSDIR\app-32.7z and extract to a folder of your choice
  4. Launch Zoho Mail - Desktop.exe
Status: not portable, writes to C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Zoho Mail - Desktop\

Resources: 142 megs of disk space once I'd logged into my account and, while running, took up about 150 megs of RAM across two separate process.

Home: https://www.zoho.com/mail/desktop/
Announcement: https://www.zoho.com/mail/blog/announci ... lient.html

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webfork
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Zoho Writer - word processor

#2 Post by webfork »

NOTE: As I'm not advocating for this program, I'm just attaching it to the other Zoho program that has a similar pros-cons list.

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Short version: Update here: I was recently using this without an internet connection and it insisted I re-login. So even the offline function is pointless. Just use the web app (writer.zoho.com). This is the downloadable Zoho Writer word processing program is just like it sounds: an offline Word / Google Docs alternative. There's some neat features here but this doesn't seem ready for prime time. Apart from someone with spotty Internet connections, I can't see why you'd use this versus just logging into the web interface.

Resource usage: As with their Mail client, Zoho put out a writer program that's just a downloadable webapp packaged inside a copy of Chrome (Electron). Resource usage is predictably intense: Download is 77 megs, takes up 700 megs of RAM, 134 megs of disk space.

Website: https://www.zoho.com/writer/desktop-app.html

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Evaluation

Keep in mind all of the Pros below are also available with the web version. The ONLY reason to use this is because you're able to work offline, even though some features still require an internet connection.

Pros
  • Has an easily-enabled and sharp-looking dark mode right on the front screen
  • Built in readability tool - works pretty well compared to some similar ones I've tested
  • Focus typing option lets you gray out paragraphs outside of the one you're working on (something I really like from Zettlr)
  • Dramatically better format support than GDocs or Word - can download to multiple formats and maintain Track Changes in more than just one format
  • Thesaurus is better than most
Problems
  • Can't load documents from the local machine, not even with drag-and-drop
  • Some features were remarkably sluggish.
  • Templates feature is broken (got an error message while logged in).
Cons
  • Import from copy-paste of a browser window skipped images.
  • No file comparison (for change analysis) beyond tracking for edits made to the current doc -- you can't just pick two random files and see what's different. I only list this because this is a fairly standard requirement for tools of this type in the professional space. Which is where Zoho is clearly aiming in comparisons on the homepage with Word and GDocs.
  • No ability to zoom the interface, unlike the Web app
Other notes
  • By default compresses added images -- this can create problems down the road, but fortunately it can be turned off.
  • Out of a remarkably long list of options, the date format I like is unavailable (YYYY-MM-DD).
License: Registerware

Status: Not portable of course, writes entirely to AppData.

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Screenshot with content recommendations mentioned above:

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FileHandler
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Re: Zoho Mail Desktop Lite - Electron-based mail reader

#3 Post by FileHandler »

Thanks a ton for pointing out the drawbacks. You saved me a lot of time. Made it a habit to always check here first before downloading anything that seems iffy and not really convincing to me.
Btw, I like your new profile flag. Thumbs up for showing solidarity with Ukraine.

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webfork
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Re: Zoho Mail Desktop Lite - Electron-based mail reader

#4 Post by webfork »

FileHandler wrote: Sun Mar 06, 2022 11:14 am Thanks a ton for pointing out the drawbacks. You saved me a lot of time. Made it a habit to always check here first before downloading anything that seems iffy and not really convincing to me.
Btw, I like your new profile flag. Thumbs up for showing solidarity with Ukraine.
Thanks :) It's been nice to be able to test out a lot of software over the past year for portability, as well as some initial idea of quality. Glad that's helping out.

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