Open your gmail account now

Gmail is open for everyone now. I've been using gmail for a couple of years now and had sent my limited invitations to some of my friends too. One of the main advantages is the storage size that gmail offers, but a big disadvantage is the speed of opening up mail. I have yahoo accounts too, with tons of stuff saved, including over 100 photographs, but Yahoo Mail opens really, really quickly. I am also not so keen on Google integrating all of its services which it has recently done, like requiring a gmail account for using blogger etc.