Sorry, we’re not currently planning making another portable version of the application. eM Client is an offline client that needs to be activated on each computer where the application is installed, the installation takes about 5 minutes, so we believe there’s no need for a portable release.
The reason for a portable release is at least partly because, for some users, we do not want _any_ installation, no matter how simple. We want to take our information with us, and leave no traces. For example, if using a PC at an Internet cafe or similar. I do it because I have an external hard drive that I can plug into my work laptop and have nothing personal on that machine. It’s not about the installation, it’s about privacy.
OK, you don’t want to do it, maybe it messes up your licensing. So say that, don’t come out with nonsense reasons that show you do not understand the demand.
Sorry Keith - I agree with Paul (eM Client) here. Do you also want a portable version of Outlook? Are you posting in Microsoft forums for them to do that? eM Client has their licensing model and they (as far as I can tell) have not forced anyone to buy their product. They offer pretty darned impressive support for “free” users and even better support for Pro users.
Your argument for "… leave no traces. For example, if using a PC at an Internet café of similar… " is the definition of webmail. Especially those webmail interfaces that have settings for “I am at a public computer”. Full mail clients are just not designed for that (I know of no others).
So again, sorry, but Paul’s comments were not “nonsense reasons”, they were actually pretty industry standard approaches to investing in and building a software package, and then monetizing it in an effective and supportive manner. Just my 2 cents.
Paul’s comments were fine for explaining why they won’t build a portable client, they are nonsense in terms of explaining why such a client is not needed, which is what he wrote. I currently use Thunderbird portable, which leaves no trace, integrates a calendar and tasks, but is starting to look old. So such clients do exist and there is a demand.
I too think there is a reasonable demand of a portable version as like me I’ve got about six or seven email accounts using different providers and hence different web portals to check my daily e-mails.
When at home I use emClient when at work I have to use those mentioned portal one by another. If I simply could run emClient from my memory stick I would be a lot faster.
Just to be clear, I’m not criticizing their decision, it’s theirs to make. And, yes, I would love a portable Outlook. There are licensing solutions that would enable a portable version to be made (I have portable versions of licensed programs), but I again respect the decision not to look into those - I’m sure it would not be trivial to change what they currently have.
No worries Keith. These are great discussions/debates to have and probably good for the eM Client folks to hear. There are similarly engaged debates about the licensing model of “per device” vs “per user” (one license for me to use on several of my own devices). But it is indeed their decision to make and as always, it’s hard to please everyone!
As suggested earlier, unfortunately we do not believe there’s a space for portable client at the moment - past releases of eM Client could be run from an external memory such as your external hard drive or memory stick. But unfortunately we no longer develop this release and currently we’re not planning on making eM Client available on external hard drives - license will be always required when installed on an external drive.
You can use this command line to install eM Client on a different drive - however licensing will require you to sign in on each run most likely. eM Client has about 50MB after it’s installed, even when using the application in multiple environments, we believe this is a sufficient light weight installations that can do without a portable version.
