Informal Survey…

What are the Windows-based among you using as an email client these days? Outlook? Outlook Express? Thunderbird? Something else?

My ex turned me on to Eudora (among other things) a number of years ago, and I’ve stuck with that. There’s a lot I like about the program, but it’s recently been orphaned by its publisher (Qualcomm), which probably means I should start looking into something new.

(Hmm. Just noticed I’ve worn down the little ridges on the home key caps to the point I can barely feel them anymore. Maybe I should just donate my debit card to a computer store…)

12 Responses to “Informal Survey…”

  1. Forrest Says:

    I liked the UI design of OE, but if you go read its newsgroup (microsoft.public.outlookexpress.general) you’ll find it’s got a lot of infrastructure problems that aren’t being fixed. I converted to Thunderbird and prodded my father to do the same; he has had no complaints.

    Keyboard? If you want a genuine IBM Model M and have a PO Box (or your agent does), I have a spare.

  2. Dan Says:

    Thunderbird is better, no doubt. I have to use OE at work, and for junk mail filtering there is absolutely no contest. Tbird learns as I tell it what’s junk and what’s not, OE doesn’t. Plus OE saves all mail in a packed database file, which if it gets corrupted (twice in the 5 years I’ve been using it), you’re in trouble. Have never had that with Tbird.

    Btw, I read Mystery #3 yesterday, liking it more now that you’ve got the basics out of the way, looking forward to next issue.

  3. Stefan Immel Says:

    I’m using Thunderbird for my privat emails (Lotus Notes at work) and I’m very satisfied with it. I used to love OE but it got more and more buggy and the features TB has (especially the junk mail filter) are very good. I would wholehearetly recommend it.

  4. Leigh Mortensen Says:

    Thunderbird is very nice, I would also consider as an extra, convenient as heck backup, setting up a gmail account and configuring it to snag a copy of your email from the server. You can then grab the mycroft gmail search extension for firefox and basically just forget about it until inevitable digital catastrophe strikes.

  5. Fred Chamberlain Says:

    I use gmail, a free e-mail service provided by Google. It has plenty of cool additional features, including the bility to set up documents and spreadsheets…. and access them from any computer when you sign in. One of the coolest aspects of it is its near limitless sotrage and the ability to save emails forever, catelog them, etc.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if they eventually begin charging a minimal fee for it, but anyone who has already signed up for it will continue to recieve it for free.

  6. Charles Bryan Says:

    I use Outlook at work, Yahoo for myself. For my rarely used ISP’s POP account, I have an old copy of Pegasus. I liked that I could just download message headers and delete messages from the ISP’s server before they ever made it to my hard drive. Having that first message just pop open turned me off of OE for personal use many moons ago.

    Honestly though, with Pegasus, I mostly liked looking at the little winged horse icon on the desktop.

  7. Scott Says:

    Just don’t use SquirrelMail. It sucks. It’s what I use at work. I’ve never tried Thunderbird, so I can’t comment on it. I’ve been using Yahoo! mail ever since I moved out of my parents house five years ago. It might be good to use one of those programs to get it all onto my hard drive instead of floating where it can be erased if I don’t access it in 30 days.

  8. pbw Says:

    Outlook 2007. All the pain of previous Outlook incarnations is fixed in the latest release. Thunderbird a close second.

  9. Alex Krislov Says:

    I blush to admit it, but, yes, I’m still using my old CompuServe account. What can I say? After 25 years with the same mailing address, I’m loath to give it up.

  10. Darren Says:

    If my ibook hadn’t have died I’d be using mail.

    Economics forced that I get a cheapo PC, and I’m using thunderbird. Does the job and seems robust. For work I use outlook – all the extra stuff with calenders, contacts etc make it quite useful for tracking things, but it sure is over engineered. Really only useful if someone is paying a help desk person to help you out when it goes bonkers.

  11. Scott Andrew Hutchins Says:

    My boss is so dumb he can’t figure out the two clicks to print on Squirrel Mail (which does take some looking–about a minute’s worth the first time), so instead he clicks forward, and I get it with a message that says “print for me,” and he’s also a very slow typist.

  12. Soon Says:

    Really like using the mail client that comes attached with Opera. Pretty quick and light to use. Also a user of Thunderbird.