You should avoid using GMail. Messages sent from and to GMail addresses are occasionally copied to the US government, and analyzed and possibly copied by various commercial companies who pay Google/Alphabet for the privilege. (You should also encourage your friends to stop using GMail).
Also, regardless of whether it's GMail or not - use an email client. GMail and all other email providers suppose access using the IMAP and/or POP3 protocols. That (mostly) guarantees no ads, and is much faster.
As for Firefox - Mozilla has decided to block extensions' access to most APIs and limit them only to a "WebExtensions" API (even though Mozilla's internal UI code is basically just like an extension, i.e. they don't _have_ to do this.) So, FF is only partially customizable and manipulable, and the extension ecosystem is somewhat stunted. I use FF, but let's not go overboard with the praise.
You should avoid using GMail. Messages sent from and to GMail addresses are occasionally copied to the US government, and analyzed and possibly copied by various commercial companies who pay Google/Alphabet for the privilege. (You should also encourage your friends to stop using GMail).
Also, regardless of whether it's GMail or not - use an email client. GMail and all other email providers suppose access using the IMAP and/or POP3 protocols. That (mostly) guarantees no ads, and is much faster.
As for Firefox - Mozilla has decided to block extensions' access to most APIs and limit them only to a "WebExtensions" API (even though Mozilla's internal UI code is basically just like an extension, i.e. they don't _have_ to do this.) So, FF is only partially customizable and manipulable, and the extension ecosystem is somewhat stunted. I use FF, but let's not go overboard with the praise.