I downloaded and dropped gmail-lite on the server – and it was a seamless experience. All I had to do was point the browser at it.

Unfortunately, the page render on the PDA is a bit wide – it looks like it wants about 400px, and the screen is 320. But it’s a better experience than the Google-approved variant, which basically only disables javascript but retains top and side pagejunk that is problematic on a small screen.

Wait, I’m misremembering.

The apparently-new ‘plain HTML’ variant of official Gmail renders acceptably in the default Palm browser, Blazer. At first. Then, something untoward happens, and the page width exceeds the screen and the list of mail entries are vertically separated in a visually problematic manner.

The developer of gmail-lite notes that the application is also a probable violation of the Gmail TOS, which makes me nervous, as clearly Gmail is a monopoly application in my life now. Spammers, you have made Google into a king.

The upshot of this is I’m a bit wary of looking to use gmail-lite as a primary mobile interface into gmail.