Last week, I got tired of Squirrelmail. I had been using it for email checking remotely and I just got tired of the interface. It's boring, clunky and well... just looked like a web application from the mid-90s. So I went searching...

I remembered I had come across another, newer, AJAX-using (web 2.0!) browser based email client. RoundCube. I figured I'd give it a shot. I mean, at this point it couldn't be any worse. I downloaded the files and within 20 minutes had the program up and running.

At first glance I was quite impressed. One of the nicest features of RoundCube is that fact it's fully skinable using only some CSS and XHTML. I haven't dug into the files yet but it looks very promising! There's also some nice AJAX-ing dragging and dropping of emails in folders. Makes file management MUCH easier.

As I played around with it some more, I realized it IS quite basic. For instance, the address book contains spots for DIsplay Name, First Name, Last Name and Email only. Which is a bit of a disappointment. However, there are plans in the works for fully intergrated vCard support. I'd love to see this sync with my Apple Address Book. I've also noticed it runs a bit slower than Squirrelmail. I would imagine this is one the itinerary of future upgrades

RoundCube is off to a very promising start. After looking at the roadmap for the application, I'm excited to see where it ends up. For now, it's a toss up between my two webmail clients but, in the very near future, I can see RoundCube being my client of choice.