Most of us like to be notified of new email messages without having to go to the inbox itself. Linux users who use Gmail as their preferred client are no exception, so here is a very nice article which points out some available programs for automatically checking your Gmail inbox.

The author discusses 4 different tools which can be used, but cutting to the chase:

If you want the most features, CheckGmail is the way to go. KCheckGmail is well integrated into KDE, but offers fewer options than CheckGmail. The other two programs have even less functionality; Mail Notification redeems itself by allowing access to several different kinds of accounts, but suffers from a harder than needed installation procedure.

Of course there is always the option of leaving your browser open and minimized and with a quick glance you can see if the number of unread messages changes in the title bar. Of course if you have a lot of programs minimized there may not be enough room to see which makes these programs useful.