KenK wrote:

Gmail upgraded itself. Newer version extremely slow on my XP system.
It offers no way to restore the previous version which I liked. I'm
ready to change email apps.

Gmail is a service, not an app. So, what local e-mail client are you
actually using on your Windows XP computer to access your Gmail account?

Google does provide a webmail client but you must use a web browser to
use that web interface to their service. A web browser is not an e-mail
app. It is a client to connect to a site where you can see Google's
webmail interface to their service. Is that what you're calling a
"Gmail" e-mail app? E-mail providers may change their webmail interface
at any time. Both Google and Microsoft have recently changed their
webmail interfaces.

https://www.imore.com/how-enable-new...-web-interface
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/14/1...esign-features

I use Google's Voice service. They wanted to go to a new web interface
but are extremely slow to migrate all functionality from their legacy UI
to their new UI. They have an option to switch back to the legacy UI.
That's not always a choice. With Outlook.com/Hotmail and Gmail, you got
the new UI and that's all you get. No going back. Sometimes a service
will roll out a new UI and let users test it for awhile where the users
can switch between the old and new UIs. However, eventually they move
to the new UI and there's no switching back. That is, there is an
opt-out for awhile but eventually that goes away and you're forced to
the new UI.

I rarely use the webmail interface to my e-mail accounts. At some
point, I noticed there was a new UI. I cannot say if there was an
opt-out period that has since expired because I have been there very
infrequently. I recall a beta phase for Outlook.com but now the only
choice is their new UI. I use Gmail very little, so have even less
reason to ever use their webmail interface. From the imore article,
Google had an opt-out period, too. However, the article says there was
an option to switch between old and new UIs but I don't see it. Guess
the opt-out period has expired and everyone now gets the new UI.

It is likely even more scripting is involved in the new webmail
interface to Outlook.com and Gmail. If you are using an old OS with an
old web browser on old hardware then it will take longer to process all
those scripts. You might also try disabling any ad/content blocker
extensions in your undentified web browser. Removing ads often speeds
up a site but can sometimes slow down a site whose scripts expect that
content, and adblockers can sometime block off-domain scripts that the
page scripts expect to be accessible and callable. Adblockers will
break the code of a web page. That's what they do. They block
resources the page code expects to be available. You need to disable
all extensions in whatever web browser you are using to see if the web
page renders faster. Nothing you can do about using an old version of
the web browser for which there are no newer versions available on the
discontinued Windows XP platform and usually not much you can do to
improve on the hardware without replacing it.

I've got Thunderbird 2.0.0.24 which I use as a backup email app. I can't
find a way to create new folders to hold emails I wish to save. Tried
Googling this but can't get any help on this that works. Msybe I hsve an
old obsolete T-Bird?

I haven't used Thunderbird for a long time. As I recall, you
right-clicked on the parent folder under which you could create a new
subfolder. If you wanted a main folder, you right-clicked on the root
folder of a message store (aka account). Since you are using IMAP to
access your Gmail account, you may have to right-click on the root
folder and do an IMAP synchronization. It lets you choose which
server-side IMAP folder to present in the local client. When you create
new folders in the local client, they get created up on the server in
your account. However, the client may not automatically add all folders
defined on the server, so you have to go into the IMAP Folders context
menu entry to select which server-side folders the local client will
show. You get to the following dialog to have the client poll the
server for a list of folders and then select which ones to which the
client will synchronize:

https://lwstatic-a.akamaihd.net/kb/w...ubfoldssub.png

Folks in the Thunderbird newsgroup that currently use it might better
guide you in how to synchronize or create folders in Thunderbird. They
are over at mozilla.support.thunderbird (on the news.mozilla.org server
on port 119).

I'm not going to use Eudora after it stopped working and demanded it
be upgraded without offering and assistance.

Eudora died a long time ago. There was a Eudora OSE fork from
Thunderbird but it died, too, back in 2013 (well, it got archived).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudora_(email_client)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudora_OSE