I did all my email work in that one “legacy” tab, marveling at how much I preferred it to the new-look Gmail that was the only option in any newly opened tab. I carefully “slept” the machine at night rather than shutting it down. I cancelled any software update that required a system reboot. I worried about what would happen if I unthinkingly closed the tab. It was my living connection to happier days.
– James Fallows on resisting the new Gmail for as long as possible, via rc3.
As a guy who rode the old Google Reader until the wheels fell off I can definitely relate to Fallows. On the other hand, as we try to bring a better product with both a website redesign and a new addition to the team, for sanity sake you have to recognize you can’t please everyone and not every opinion is worth weighing. What gets criticized on launch may end up sorely missed by the time the next redesign comes.
The new Gmail is butt though.
