Or: use Google Apps for Domains, so that you can easily switch to another mail service when necessary, and have one machine make a backup with offlineimap.
Seriously, Gmail is free, you really can't complain about something that's free (yes, I know you "pay" by looking at ads, but when you can upgrade to the "premium" service for $50, never have to look at another ad again and get 24/7 phone support, why wouldn't you?)
Their new web interface currently in beta at https://beta.fastmail.fm/ is very nice. I've been using it (the new interface) for few months and don't feel like I want to go back to Gmail at all. (Then again I don't use labels in Gmail, so your mileage may vary.)
And today, you tell me to go to beta.fastmail.fm ... a site that looks like this: http://o7.no/IPvfHo
Note broken images, missing Latest News, and they can't even spell Fastmail correctly (see below "Login to your account"). This does not inspire confidence.
[Off topic: I think FastMail support system is pretty lame; despite being an email service, the only way to contact their support is via... web interface. They have few weird quirk like this but it's not something I couldn't live with.]
https://beta.fastmail.fm/pages/fastmail/images/fmlogo_horiz_...
vs.
https://fastmail.fm/pages/fastmail/images/fmlogo_horiz_320.p...
I moved my email over to Fastmail.fm, a subscription email service, around 8 months ago. They've been in the business since 1999 and seem to be pretty reliable. The web interface and price obviously doesn't compare to Gmail, but all the other features are there.