15 replies to this topic

[MattyB]

Hey Nerdy McNerdersons, does anyone know of a good email program to use, other than Outlook? Can you easily transfer existing Outlook email files over to it? This is for a PC, using Windows XP Office. Thanks!

[PALM MOD]

I have heard very good things about Thunderbird. I don't use it, but it is worth checking out. Made by Mozilla, the same company that does Firefox.

[ErikSJI]

I use thunderbird. It works great.

[Succulentum]

Years ago I left Outlook to Thunderbird, and I had transfered all my messages and contacts without any problems. Then, now I don't bother me with an email program, I use Gmail on line and left all my messages on the web. I use a pc at work, another one at home a notebook,all my archives are available where I am . you can also make folders to classify your mail, searches old mail by keywords...

[joe_OC]

Online email services are great for personal emails. Especially now with smartphones.

[Funkthulhu]

I have quite the interconnected set-up with Gmail, calendar, etc. I'm pretty sure that you can export your old emails from Outlook to Gmail relatively easy. Like everybody says, it's nice to have access from any computer/smartphone with a connection. I even have my work-email set up on my phone to push messages when I'm out in the field and it works pretty slick.

Good Luck, whatever you choose!

[BigFrond]

You can use Gmail or Yahoo mail. Outlook is rather antequated in the cloud environment. It is crappy with the folders instead of the labels used Gmail.

[Funkthulhu]

Fair warning, I had to set up several of my coworkers with new computers over the last couple months and the boss IT man wants to use Windows Live Mail instead of Outlook. You have not pulled out hair or suffered frustration until you've tried to transfer old emails from Outlook to Windows Live Mail.... (not impossible, just a huge work-a-round pain in the ass.)

[MattyB]

You can use Gmail or Yahoo mail. Outlook is rather antequated in the cloud environment. It is crappy with the folders instead of the labels used Gmail.

This is for the business and we want to have all our emails on our computers and we back them up to external hard drives that are stored in a fire safe. I don't trust "the cloud".

[BigFrond]

You can use Gmail or Yahoo mail. Outlook is rather antequated in the cloud environment. It is crappy with the folders instead of the labels used Gmail.

This is for the business and we want to have all our emails on our computers and we back them up to external hard drives that are stored in a fire safe. I don't trust "the cloud".

Safe and not safe between Gmail and Exchange is just a matter of opinions and fear of the unknown. Many users are uninformed and based their conclusions from baseless opinions. The UC System is slowly switching from Exchange to Gmail. "Slowly" because many of the researchers/faculties and etc. feared that their important documents and patents can be hack. All of these opinions spread like wildfires at first. However, after LOTS of scrutinizing, many came to the realization that the "safe" is really not that much different. Each system can be hack by the users within (knowingly and unknowningly). Part of UCSD have switched, UC Davis , UC Berkley, and a few others. Decisions a the UC System is not taken lightly. It's like watching rocks eroding.

The maintenance of Outlook is horrible. I has only one file, yuck. If your company choose Gmail, Google will maintain your mail. Your company will not need a few admin to maintain the system. The calendar is much better than Outlook. There's also Google Docs and Google Sites. Google Docs allows you to document anything within your intranet. Your document will be available on your intranet and anyone with permission can update the documents (no html knowledge). Google Sites allows you to create web page on the fly. You don't need to know html. This is how the faculty members can create their webpage as oppose to having some underlings to maintain or create it.

[MattyB]

Yeah, all those bells and whistles are exactly what I don't want. I resist the evolution of technology as much as I can in this day and age. People just don't need all this stuff, but if we want to make money and live in a city we have to participate in it to a certain extent. Amish is lookin' better and better to me.

[joe_OC]

Matt,

Yahoo small business can set you up with your email. When I was with a small company, we used yahoo as our email server and used Outlook to access the email. Outlook is not your email server...it is just the allocation to access your email.

Joe

[MattyB]

We have cox

[redant]

I always preferred outlook express to outlook. Outlook a huge resource pig, the express is surprisingly good. For some reason it's not available for windows 7

[Succulentum]

Yeah, all those bells and whistles are exactly what I don't want. I resist the evolution of technology as much as I can in this day and age. People just don't need all this stuff, but if we want to make money and live in a city we have to participate in it to a certain extent. Amish is lookin' better and better to me.

I think you are wrong Mat Gmail is not "the evolution of technology" there are just the minimum for the simplicity and facility : easy to use, that's the word, nothing to install, great.
the only downside in my opinion is to turn everything over to the same company, google.

jean-bernard

[BigFrond]

IMAP and POP mail is the thing of the past. They basically suck eg. Outlook. I used Outlook over 19 years and I do not want to use it again. Jst a personal opinion. On the other hand, many people are happy with Outlook and do not ever want to change.

Succulentum, you either can choose Google or Microsoft. So far Google is playing much nicer than Microsoft ever did and their apps work. M$ takes out the competition and churn up crappy apps. You cannot get any support reply soon enough. When they're tired of the complaints, M$ create a new version and do not support the old ones.