Time to ditch Outlook? Eight alternatives tested


Contents
Introduction
 Avoiding e-mail worms
 Barca
 Calypso
 Eudora
 Lotus Notes
 Outlook
 Pegasus
 Pine
 The Bat
 Mozilla Thunderbird
 Specifications
 Final words
 Editor's choice
 About RMIT
Lotus Notes
IBM distribute this full featured e-mail client and personal organiser package. It has a calendar, planner (showing day, week, or month), to do list, and meeting list. IBM keenly informed us that instant messaging is now included with Notes. This feature allows users to see which of their colleagues or friends are currently online and initiate a "chat" or text meetings with multiple people (assuming they have the same software).

Other collaboration tools are optional -- AU$224 with, AU$161 without. Messages can be digitally signed and encrypted, address books can also be encrypted. Users have the option of blocking Java Applets and scripts in e-mails.

Lotus can import data from word-processors and spreadsheets and can handle a wide range of graphics files. The dictionaries for the spell checker come in English versions that include New Zealand, Jamaica, and even a medical dictionary, but somehow manages to miss Australia.

Lotus also has mailbox searching abilities, and clever users may be able to develop suitable macros -- called Agents by Lotus -- for mail merge and other tasks. As usual Lotus does not scrimp on pretty graphics for the user interface. Lotus prefers 128MB of RAM and twice that in disk space. It will run on Windows or Mac operating systems.

Editor's Note: This review has been updated. Lotus Notes comes with mailbox search functions.

Product Lotus Notes 6.5
Price AU$224
Vendor IBM
Phone 1800 808 066
Web www.ibm.com.au
Interoperability
Excellent, conversion facilities.
Futureproofing
Good security and features.
ROI
Pricey, but lots of features.
Service
12 months is fair.
Rating ½
 Lotus Notes

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Talkback 20 comments

  1. What? can't search in Lotus Notes? The author didn't look to hard. I started playing with Notes v 4.6ish and it had full text indexing of the mail and attachments back then Anonymous -- 18/02/05

    What? can't search in Lotus Notes? The author didn't look to hard. I started playing with Notes v 4.6ish and it had full text indexing of the mail and attachments back then

    1. Depends on your server configuration Anonymous -- 23/01/08

      We run Domino and have indexing disabled for performance reasons and as a result Thunderbird can't search - it's not the fault of the client.

  2. Notes has excellent searching. `While there don't seem to be functions for mailbox searching and mail-merging' - Searching in Notes is probably the best and fastest of all these clients once full indexing is turned. Even without full text indexing it st Anonymous -- 20/02/05

    Notes has excellent searching. `While there don't seem to be functions for mailbox searching and mail-merging' - Searching in Notes is probably the best and fastest of all these clients once full indexing is turned. Even without full text indexing it still can search all mailboxes. Just go to all `all documents' and find as a basic way of doing it.

    Have seen mail merging done without any agents of thrid party app's, its in the help.

  3. The author says that Pine is the only alternative reviewed available to Unix users and then proceeds to review Mozilla Thunderbird which operates on all systems. Completely omitted were many other Open Source utilities available to package for W Anonymous -- 20/02/05

    The author says that Pine is the only alternative reviewed available to Unix users and then proceeds to review Mozilla Thunderbird which operates on all systems.

    Completely omitted were many other Open Source utilities available to package for Windows using the Cywin compiler.

    Why even mention Pine and its availability on Unix if the Linux community is being ignored here? The author should wake up and smell the Open Source.

  4. Thanks for the great article. After reading it I also tried many of the mentioned clients. I have to say that I also like Thunderbird the most. It looks very nice and I can customize it with another theme. Colorfull lines indicating different levels of qu Anonymous -- 21/02/05

    Thanks for the great article. After reading it I also tried many of the mentioned clients. I have to say that I also like Thunderbird the most. It looks very nice and I can customize it with another theme. Colorfull lines indicating different levels of quoted text are also great. Other features like quick search and advanced features are also very useful. It also imported my OE mail just perfectly and now I am a very happy user of Thunderbird. Oh I forgot to mention junk (anti-spam) filter. It is working perfectly so far. If you are still using Outlook Express and you haven't tried anything else I highly recommend you check out Thunderbird. I'm positive most of you will quickly switch to the more advanced and safe e-mail client.

  5. Thank you for alerting us to the problem. Lotus Notes does have mailbox search functions and we have amended the review accordingly. Anonymous -- 21/02/05

    Thank you for alerting us to the problem. Lotus Notes does have mailbox search functions and we have amended the review accordingly.

  6. Evolution is free and very good too. Anonymous -- 22/02/05

    Evolution is free and very good too.

    1. Evolution John -- 08/09/05

      Evolution is not bad at all, the big problem is that in a corporate world the connector to Exchange is a pile of crap, therefore limits its value to any deployment

  7. So has anybody heard of GroupWise? Seems to be a glaring omission, particularly given Novell's recent Suse acquisition and release of open source software. Anonymous -- 28/02/05

    So has anybody heard of GroupWise? Seems to be a glaring omission, particularly given Novell's recent Suse acquisition and release of open source software.

    1. No we haven't John -- 08/09/05

      Being a recent Open Source product doesn't suddenly make it good. At less than 2% of the worlds email users it's real value belongs to days gone past when Novell mattered to the world.

    2. Yes, I've heard of groupwise. Andy T -- 10/12/05

      It's been out now about 10/11 years (maybe longer), its novell's mail / group collaboration software, My experiences with groupwise have always been positive - its feature rich and can save you a lot of time when working with teams.

  8. What no comment about Incredimail Anonymous -- 28/03/05

    What no comment about Incredimail

    1. Incredimail Ali Dream60 -- 31/12/07

      I have been on the computer for about 12 to 13 years. 10 of those years I have had Incredimail.
      I found it to be fantastic and I seam to miss out on a lot of the bugs and nasties that float around.

      Well that was until I paid for the gold version this year 07.
      Had heaps of problems with the bought one but the free is great go get it wish I could go back to the free but ones bought you cant go back.

  9. Reading these reviews, it's obvious security & function count for very little. Anonymous -- 11/07/05

    Reading these reviews, it's obvious security & function count for very little.

  10. another alternative Anonymous -- 12/08/05

    I've been involved with beta testing something called OfficePax. Its something worth the while looking into. However, its not all that practical for personal use and it's not FREE (but beta version is, so get it while it lasts)

  11. free software is not the same as freeware Jessica -- 06/09/05

    In the editors choice, Mozilla Thunderbird was refered to as freeware. Please note that Mozilla Thunderbird is free software, this is not the same as freeware.
    <br><br>
    Below is an <a href="http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/categories.html#freeware">explination</a> from the Free Software Foundation's website:<br>
    The term ``freeware'' has no clear accepted definition, but it is commonly used for packages which permit redistribution but not modification (and their source code is not available). These packages are not free software, so please don't use ``freeware'' to refer to free software.

  12. Precisions h3 -- 07/09/05

    I also like Thunderbird among all other clients, for home use it's the dream e-mail client. But it's note quite ready for buisiness use .. contrary to what it said in the article, Thunderbird's LDAP support is only partial (read only). The MAPI implentation is broken too. There's also a lack of a mail transport server acting as a groupware, like exchange. But be sure that if it would exists, I'd be the first one to use it. In fact, the only replacement I've found for exchange is the pegasus mercury server, but I don't like it much.

  13. hackers,spammers and wiretaps Anonymous -- 10/07/06

    thanks for all of the help you all did for me!I had massive amount of difficulties if you remember me.

  14. hackers,spammers and wiretaps Anonymous -- 10/07/06

    thanks for all of the help you all did for me!I had massive amount of difficulties if you remember me.

  15. no one email client is like Outlook Express Alphonse Langueduc -- 31/12/07

    Hello,
    many and many times I searched for a valid alternative to Outlook Express but I found that there is not an available equivalent software.

    I especially refer at the fact that with Outlook Express I can use very powerful features, such as signatures and identities. With signatures I gain a lot of time because I can save in files unlimited predefined answers for common questions customers send me about my business.

    And with identities I can manage several emails account in an unique email client.

    In my knowledge, no other email client has these features. If you know someone, please notify me.

  16. Barca Pro James Tom -- 12/04/08

    I have downloaded Barca Pro and found its GUI very intuative and yet similar to Outlook, However if you are a Heavy Outlook user and have many calendar entries, TRY synchronizing the CALENDAR, its a nightmare.
    Each calendar entry has to be INDIVIDUALLY imported, and that was the nail in the coffin.
    Otherwise its a great program when starting off.
    Cheers

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