Outlook Quitline

Top alternatives to Microsoft Outlook

Mozilla Thunderbird 2 with Sunbird

Thunderbird is an open source application, but does not include calendar functions. Sunbird is the stand-alone calendar solution also produced by the Mozilla Foundation. All bases are covered with this combination, but it lacks the convenience of Outlook's all-in-one approach.

Why should it be necessary to open two applications each morning when one would suffice? Generally the interface has a similar layout to Outlook, but the devil is in the detail (where are the Cc and Bcc options when replying to a message?).

While not immediately visible, the Cc and Bcc buttons are actually only a single click away. Migrating from one application to another is always fraught with difficulties, but it creates a risk that the idea of different and worse might be confused.

Thunderbird renders HTML messages without trouble and is rated excellent by the Email Standards Project. The message editor provides very good text-handling options including tables, indents and numbered lists as well as full support for the "img" tag when including pictures.

Thunderbird supports message encryption with digital signatures. Incoming messages can be filtered and directed to folders according to keywords in a manner very similar to Outlook. Search and sort functions allow the user to find old messages quickly or arrange messages according to personal convenience by date, sender, priority, subject, tag or even size.

An area the open source community really excels in is the provision of language support. Dictionaries and/or language packs are currently available for over 60 languages or dialects — including five versions of English (Australia, Canada, South Africa, UK and US). Installation of the software is very easy.

Sunbird allows for multiple calendars, web publishing and provides reminders prior to appointments. Sunbird is built on the same base as the Lightning calendar plug-in for Thunderbird. The user can specify the length of scheduled events. A simple, but adequate, "To Do" list is also incorporated into this program. The Task list in Outlook takes an eternity to open and given its complexity it might better be described as a mini project planner. Sunbird, on the other hand, caters to simpler needs.

In addition to the expected support for POP3 and IMAP accounts, Thunderbird also allows access to RSS, Newsgroup and Gmail accounts. Sunbird calendars can be stored online to facilitate sharing with colleagues.

As with any free software, don't expect on-demand support lines. There are forums, of course, but even the help files are a separate download. This is a well put together product, even if it does lack a few of the options and polish of Microsoft Outlook. Its most serious flaws are the separation into two discrete applications and the support issue. In regards to integration, Thunderbird 3 is set to include, among other improvements, an integrated calendar such as the current Lightning add-on. When Thunderbird 3 will be released is unclear at this stage.

(Credit: Michael Palamountain/ZDNet.com.au)


(Credit: Michael Palamountain/ZDNet.com.au)


(Credit: Michael Palamountain/ZDNet.com.au)

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Talkback 44 comments

    Lotus Notes Mail file screenshot is R5 Anonymous -- 25/02/09

    The screenshot of the Lotus Notes R8.5 mail file is showing an R5 mail file design, not a R8.5 The calendar is showing R8.5.

    GMail Anonymous -- 25/02/09

    What's the problem with not having control over the google mail servers when you host your own domain using google.com/a/? You can just migrate your business elsewhere if google don't offer a good service.
    You fail to mention that you can archive all your mail in any client since they provide imap access. Gmail is also accessible via mobile and messages are saved offline when using the Gmail app for Symbian.

    Anti-MS sensationalism Mel Sommersberg -- 25/02/09

    Why replace six of one with half a dozen of something else?

    I'm not against competition and all for choice but every time articles like this appear the only compelling reason a change is encouraged is because Big Bad Microsoft has their product on computers by default.

    Anti-MS sensationalism susan rattray -- 25/02/09 (in reply to #320124110)

    Hear hear. I am sick and tired of reading these computer magazines/blogs. They all repeat the mantra "microsoft/windows is evil". Bah humbug to all of you Mac users. I love my windows and live mail, messenger,photos,blog etc.

    Oh Come On John Lindsay -- 26/02/09 (in reply to #320124117)

    Anti MS Sensationalism? Hardly. The article is about alternatives to Outlook. Not because it's bad - it's not. The people that use it think it's great (like yourselves) and that's not something you can always say about Notes Users especially if they came from companies that used Outlook (believe me I know!). What the article says is that of the alternatives Notes is the best if connected to a Domino Server. It doesn't say that any of the alternatives is better than Outlook and that only a couple of the alternatives even deserve to be compared to Outlook.

    Mel-ancholy Smersberger Rex Alfie Lee -- 06/09/09 (in reply to #320124110)

    They are talking about replacing Outlook (probably bcoz it's Microsoft & therefore evil & bcoz it is entrenched in faulty, proprietary source-code). M$ also charge the earth for testing their half-baked code by selling it to their users as non-beta; ie Vista-crap, Mill. Edition, etc etc etc.

    Outlook is possibly the most security threatened software available. Word is up there as well & M$ in their wisdom combine the two.

    How much do you get for standing firmly behind M$ whilst it crumbles all around you Mel? M$ is a quagmire of deceit & at present are paying for it bcoz they can't sell Word under the cloud of theft of proprietary XML code. Ironic, isn't it.

    So why Michael P. doing an expose on not using Outlook? Because there are some who would like to try something else Mel. Perhaps not you but some may want to try. It may not be just bcoz M$ are evil or against the point that Outlook is arguably the best option. They may just not want to pay M$'s high prices or continually patch the errors or patch the malware failings in Outlook. They may have a different reason to me bcoz I won't use Outlook on the basis it's made by M$ & that's my right.

    Notes 8.5 rocks peter -- 26/02/09

    We're at 3000+ user organization that uses Notes and we've recently re-committed to the platform. We're upgrading to v8.5 (the latest) and those execs who are running it now (to "kick the tires" so to speak) really like it, especially how it's drastically improves the UI. We're quite excited about it.

    re: Lotus Notes Mail File screenshot is R5 Anonymous -- 26/02/09

    What you're seeing on the Screenshot is the IMAP Mail Template. I saw a post elsewhere about this to say that it hasn't been updated yet. Shame they didn't use the 8.5 template.

    IMAP Template ? Anonymous -- 26/02/09 (in reply to #320124131)

    You don't need to use any special template for IMAP support so I don't see that as a valid reason for using an old screenshot.

    IMAP Template? John Lindsay -- 26/02/09 (in reply to #320124202)

    You know that and I know that but it doesn't mean that they know that. If you are looking at a list of templates and you are setting up an IMAP connection what are you likely to use? A Template that say MAIL (8.5) or one that says Mail (IMAP). And (again from the authors point of view) you wouldn't have any reason to believe that the templates would ultimately look any different in use. I'd be more inclined to give IBM a hard time for having different looking templates than a reviewer using the wrong screenshot. From his point of view it is the right screenshot.

    At the end of the day and in spite of that the review favours Notes and that's pretty good.

    Top alternatives to Microsoft Outlook Anonymous -- 26/02/09

    Great article

    Revealed several interesting points about what solution chosen

    Thunderbird "features" Anonymous -- 27/02/09

    You didn't mention it, but in my version of Thunderbird (2.0.0.19) the up and down arrows in an open email header to take you to next/previous message don't work. I can't be the only one to notice. Since it is freeware, this may be on their list as an SEP (software enhancement proposal, or, someone else's problem) An annoyance, but not crippling.

    The other point I didn't see is the reason I got Thunderbird in the first place - the availability of a widget to grab Hotmail messages down from the server. Mozilla and MS have a cat and mouse game going, where MS keeps disabling it somehow, and Mozilla finds a workaround.

    re: Thunderbird features. Anonymous -- 03/07/09 (in reply to #320124275)

    My arrows work, so do the next/previous buttons. Must be your machine, not Thunderbird that is the issue.
    I, too, love the fact I can direct my Gmail to be picked up in Thunderbird. Way to go Mozilla!

    Mail interface alternatives Robert Thresher -- 27/02/09

    I work with a lot of different companies. They use all sorts of products. I like Domino most because it is consistent, and largely backward compatible. MS can not say this... Well They could say it, but they can't do it. Others... well they are a small minority. There likely isn't any need for backward compatibility... or not much of one. Apples to apples ? Domino is not just email. Go to the site and look for yourself. MS has been trying to do what Domino does for many years now. Always playing catch up. But not a bad mail client. That is for sure. Long as you don't plan to migrate to a new version....

    Kmail Anonymous -- 27/02/09

    I use Kmail, which is the email component of Kontact, with Debian 5.0, and I have no problem seeing embedded images in HTML emails.

    Thunderbird +iCal = Lightning Add-On NOT Sunbird Anonymous -- 28/02/09

    You are totally missing the boat here. Thunderbird has a great add-on called Lighting which essentially is a component that integrates all the Sunbird features natively in Thunderbird.
    In addition, you are not mentioning (or may not know) the tag and search feature(s) which totally blows Outlook out of the water. You clearly have not truly tried Thunderbird. ...go deeper, immerse yourself ..you shall see.

    Some notes Anonymous -- 28/02/09

    - Prices are badly compared, ex. Thunderbird is only a client application, GroupWise is a complete mail solution and the price includes server & support.
    - GroupWise Instant Messenger is a great IM application that integrates well with the GroupWise mail client (start chat from contact, see contact status, ...)

    you have to be kidding Slowtus Notes gag Anonymous -- 28/02/09

    what they leave out here is Notes is a resource hog,, you will sacrifice hours of each persons time each day to use notes over lightning quick outlook/office. You will also have to have whole departments of help desk people to support notes in your organization so if your goal is to grow hardware footprint, grow support helpdesk foot print and waste hours of your peoples time, look at notes...otherwise stay with a phenominal product MS office/.exchange/outlook. I have never in my life had to log a helpdesk call on outlook or office, I have had to do so regualrly on notes...it sucks.

    Zarafa is another good alternative Anonymous -- 28/02/09

    I have set up a test server running Zarafa and integrated it with Openldap. The setup procedure is much easier than Zimbra and everything is so much easier to understand than Zimbra. MAPI supported.

    Outlook Nick -- 28/02/09

    Given the breadth of products you studied, it's a pity you didn't include Microsoft Outlook itself as a reference point. That would help people answer the most interesting question of all - are the alternatives better?

    Outlook/Exchange Anonymous -- 28/02/09 (in reply to #320124446)

    Agreed. Outlook and Exchange are still number 1 here, and it's because (despite their problems), they're still the best.

    I think the Notes client is worse than the GroupWise client (although GroupWise has had problems on the server end).
    As has been mentioned earlier, Lotus Notes sucks big time (big usuability problems, the single-threaded UI of the Notes client, the larger number of help desk calls, higher staff requirements, maintenance issues, etc.), and saying it's good enough for IBM is just pathetic - it's their product! (I'd like to see the numbers when you remove sites where IBM is the outsourcer. I wouldn't use Microsoft as a reason to recommend Exchange/Outlook, nor Novell with GroupWise).

    Groupwise server problems Doug Wilson -- 03/04/09 (in reply to #320124457)

    What server problems are you talking about I have been in groupwise shops with 20,000 users and they only had two administrators for the whole system- Groupwise and Novell. When you talk about server problems what about the fact that you have to take the whole information store down to to any king of maintance on the server. Not with Groupwise you and check individual or entire postoffice without taking anyone off of the system. What about microsoft offline defrag which requires you to have 150% free storage space to run. That is very expensive for storage cost. There is no such requirment for groupwise. You and also run groupwise servers on linux, netware, and windows. What about the high number of viruses that attack outlook. Do some checking and compare the number to exchange/outlook.

    Groupwise Server Probelms?? Greg -- 21/06/09 (in reply to #320127864)

    I would have to agree with Doug on this one, we just recently made the decision to explore Exchange but more and more you find Total cost of ownership are so much higher than Groupwise over all. We have about 500 users and run great some mailboxes we have are 25gb and run, how many exchange admins have a client like that in their active mailbox. I just dont get it. They are #1 because of marketing and advertising, its simple advertise enough of something people will think its standard because that is all you hear. Just google how many companies are available to maintain and patch your exchange server, that's a sign people, do the same search for groupwise and see what difference, ITs becasue it just works. On a typical year I might experience 4-6 hours of down time and that is to apply the 3-5 new patches a year that is released, and reboot. with exchange, new patches every week to apply, security vulnerabilities, A big bulls eye for the hacker community, so even if it was running perfectly all year and you only spent a half hour applying patches that is still 26 hours of down time. What am I missing here. Now I understand that everyone coming out of school knows microsoft, thats why a student can buy office for $30 and then a business has to pay $400 for that person to continue using it. Thats why microsof is #1 they are the best marketing company that is and will ever exist. My findings overall Micro$oft is about 60% higher than comparable solutions in Novell is this worth the additional pain, I dont know.

    Proprietory Storage Anonymous -- 02/03/09

    I use Notes @ Work and have done since v4.5. I'm now on v8.5. The usability of Notes used to be absolutely appalling. 8.5 is the first version I've used where I feel that Lotus 'get it'. They still don't have proportional scroll bars but a lot of the of the other niggles are getting fixed. And best of all, it's reliable on Linux. At home, I use KMail on KDE/Linux and am very pleased with it. No worries about HTML rendering and the main point for me is that I can get at my e-mail with any text application I choose. It's one of the main reasons I dropped Outlook. Any sign of disk corruption and It's a nightmare to recover Outlook data. (sharing data wasn't too tasty either, from what I remember)

    Ugghhhh Chunderbird Anonymous -- 02/03/09

    I am getting a bit sick of the Thunderbird instabilites and programming.

    Looking forward to dumping Thunderbird for Gamil.

    These are fairly typical TB issues.

    This is a recurrent bug, where the password manager suddenly dumps the ability to send mail via gmail.

    And we get the fun issue of the email refusing to send AND NO way to stop the program from FLASHING in the task bar - which is annoying.

    I mean who are the geniuses that set that to repeat for ever - without the password manager taking a dump.

    Tweak UI doesn't work on it and there is NO "do not flash in the taskbar" OFF SWITCH.

    I get asked to repeatedly enter my password... and because this doesn't work - then I have to go through the bullshit of going online because there are NO help files downloaded with the program.

    (Duh - smart move that)

    And then I find that I get told to go OPTIONS, PRIVACY, PASSWORDS and into "Edit SAVED Passwords" only to find that there is NO list of saved or never to be saved pass words.

    The only way to get around this is to ignore all the stupid "programming" advice and use this

    Mail PassView v1.50 - Extract lost email passwords
    Copyright (c) 2003 - 2009 Nir Sofer

    from here.

    http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mailpv.html

    And the thing is that the password I had was the right one, the program has had this long standing fault of dumping it's ability to use the stored password which is not saved when you reenter it anyway.

    There is the really irritating nag flashing in the task bar - that cannot be switched off - every time an email hangs or doesn't send.

    Then the only way to view the password/s is to use a "crack" for want of a better word because the stupid program won't show them.....

    And most of these faults or idiot design features have been going on for YEARS, with no end in sight.

    The fourth point of complaint is that I like to use HTML emails, and yet "the geniuses" who created this software, think that it's cleverer to to make everyone use a bastardised version of a word processing program with automatic formatting.

    I prefer to use the ONE font and font size all the way through, and yet, when I insert a picture or what ever, the automatic programming cuts in and shoves these absolutely idiotic reformatting of the email in my face.

    BODY.

    Paragraph

    Headings - 1 - 6

    Address

    Preformat;

    Along with---------------

    Variable Width

    Fixed Width

    And a stack of other fonts.

    All I want is to have the document locked into say Courier new, Size 14 - all the way through.

    Yet, everyone either ignores this request or the option of keeping an emailer as an emailer instead of a word processor - is never attended too.

    Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

    Then toss in the way the "**** idiots" have programmed in the "politically correct" function of inserting text instead of pictures so blind people can understand what the picture is.

    I mean **** me... I don't email any blind people, so to have to constantly rejig the "Alternative TEXT" to off for the insertion of images, is just bullshit.

    It should only be there as a choice to switch ON, not the default to switch off....

    I mean the people who do the Mozilla Thunderbird program do so much **** really stupid ****

    And this has been going on for such a LONG time....

    It reminds me of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation (add libbing a bit here), of building light switches that are programmed to tell and ask you, "Did you know that turning the light off with make the room go dark? If you want to proceed with deilluminating the room, please press yes, if you would like to room to remain lit - please pres no."

    I mean this is how uttely **** stupid some of the ideas that these committees dream up and impose upon the users.

    Uggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh Bring on the Gmail client - get rid of the committee of idiots.

    The great groupie culture of the Thunderbird user base...

    "Were all clones".... "Well I'm not"

    Thunderbird is ROCK SOLID - yours are minor issues Graeme Harrison (prof at-symbol post.harvard.edu) -- 19/06/09 (in reply to #320124503)

    I've used most email apps over two decades, and think Thunderbird stands out for being the MOST ROCK SOLID and standards-compliant of all of them. Thunderbird has NO vendor lock-in and no turn-off date (ie when licenses not paid) unlike other email apps.
    In three years use, going to various email servers concurrently, I've never had it lose a password.
    I send 'heaps' of images via email, but I simply drag-n-drop them from a directory onto the 'Compose' window and they are put into 'attachments' yet are visible in-line at the end of the text message. But I DO NOT seek to do HTML composing (ie tags etc and embedded images) so I can't comment on what tags are added when you seek to insert images in the text area.
    As to allowing alternative text to an image, it is NOT just for blind people, as lots of email recipients have the "Don't show/download images" set, so they read plain text email and decide if sender is on 'white list' (in contacts) before showing images to cut down spam and porn viewing.
    I find all the Open Source programs are actually very good if you go to the development site and log your change request and/or problem, they seem to fix things in a reasonable period if they are a major headache for some sub-set of users. Arguably better to explain problems there than vent spleen here!
    But the MAIN reason I use Thunderbird as my preferred mail app is because it is very quick to search my 50,000 emails of past decade, I will NEVER have to change that data to another format, and I will never have to upgrade to some 'new' app. The nature of Open Source is that the developers are never keen to let your old app 'age' so that they can sell you a different-looking 'new' app for a new licence fee, whereas that is the very nature of proprietary software.

    Groupwise Instant Messaging Anonymous -- 03/03/09

    Groupwise does include a full featured IM server and client. It needs to be installed separately like most others but is a secure solution fully integrated in eDirectory like Groupwise itself.

    Sick of Pro-MS sycophants Anonymous -- 04/03/09

    I'm a little tired of people saying "you are all unshaved anti-MS hippies - use Outlook and Windows Mail".

    The idea of alternatives is to provide competition - it works in the browser wars (would IE have tabbed browser and phishing filters without Firefox?), why not in mail applications. After all, it is the outlook people that win, as it drives MS to keep up, even if they are disinclined to innovate. Let's face it, lack of competition on the desktop caused Vista to be a 5 year BETA of Windows 7.

    I wish you'd place a couple of nice screen shots of Thunderbird/Evolution on a good looking Linux system (Fedora 10, nicely customised and de-browned Ubuntu, Linux Mint) and showed some screen shots.

    The mac shots looked great, even Vista looked decent (despite windows mail being a stinking pile of faeces and impossible to get the right APIs to function in complex messages between it and Outlook 2007).

    I would like some "demystifying" shots on a linux based computer that says "hey, this isn't so bad to use - there are differences between Windows and Mac, and it still looks usable, maybe some linux versions are the same". Hell, I'd provide them Free of charge and with no restrictions if asked.

    And the Kmail shot was poor - I could do that on a gnome based system, and have it look perfect without any extra configuring.

    Man, I love being multi-lingual with OS's.

    evolution section flawed Anonymous -- 07/03/09

    The section about Evolution is neither very well researched nor written. Although there is a windows port of evolution, that port is not officially supported nor very well QA'd.

    If people talk about Evolution as an outlook killer then they talk about it running under Linux. Evolution integrates with and depends on an environment that the windows port doesn't come with. It's called GNOME. Namely,

    I'm using Evolution for years (in Linux) and apart from some minor annoyances like still poor PGP support would love to use it in Windows, too...but everytime i tried it simply wasn't ready.

    You wanna see Evolution, look at it in e.g. Ubuntu:
    - It is easier to update than Outlook.
    - Comprehensive documentation pops up when selecting Help->Contents.
    - Everything you need to configure is accessible through Evolutions preferences UI. Everything that is not a setting of Evolution, but of integrated software is accessible through a separate settings UI (like e.g. key management).

    I have no problem with saying we only tested the windows port and for the windows port the results are these...

    But including the statement "Our brief overview of the Linux version uncovered no significant differences between the platforms." and the way the author refers to 5 year old OSS clichees when pointing out missing documentation and so on on an unsupported windows port is a non-applicable generalization and bad journalism at best.

    GroupWise Anonymous -- 11/03/09

    Costs: "The desktop version of this application, as tested, costs a scary US$179 per user" you have to offset this against the cost of an exchange implementation see Novell's comparison http://www.novell.com/connectionmagazine/2009/02/groupwise_tco_total_cost_of_ownership2.html

    As for the 'missing' main menu -"We were initially bewildered by what could not be found (even basics such as a menu system and the ability to set up email accounts)" - I'm pretty certain the main menu is on by default when you first install the client and it's easily turned on/off by a button on the top right - of course you do need to know about the button.

    Groupwise Anonymous -- 06/04/09

    Agree with the comments expressed here , we converted from Groupwise to Exchange. Exchange is a complete nightmare, needs approx 4 times the servers and disc space than groupwise, a backward step, also who claimed that AD was a directory , obviously never used EDIR cheers management

    No matter what Sw Anonymous -- 27/04/09

    but did you thought about the future migrates to other platforms as your business will grow? I do not want to spent money on recovering emails from users machines as they migrates from Bat/Eudora/Zimbra/... to Lotus/MS/Groupwise ect. What is the benefit to save money on less worth open source? If you get the same benefits from Open source then ok, but if not, then I will rather buy quality...

    That's why i am using Outlook '07 and Open office.
    Re: to Notes users - I am using Notes 8.5 parallel, and it is the last S**T!!! What was IBM thinking when they was creating this software?

    No Instant Messenger for GroupWise? - MARKED AS SPAM BY AKISMET Anonymous -- 07/05/09

    Errr... I wonder what this GroupWise Instant Messenger icon on my desktop for the past 2 or 3 years is? On top of that you can use pidgin or other open source clients to connect to the GW instant messaging service.

    Groupwise Instant Messenger is not Groupwise Anonymous -- 20/09/09 (in reply to #320135002)

    GWIM is a separate program. On the server and on the workstation.

    Alts Anonymous -- 13/05/09

    Been using Outlook 2003 roughly since it came out. While it has its quirks, still happy with it. Like the PIM and scheduling [stand alone, not with Exchange]. I also sync the address book with my old Palm and my Motorola cell phone. If I switch to another, I will probably loose both options.

    Open Source IS Future Proofing Graeme Harrison (prof at-symbol post.harvard.edu) -- 19/06/09

    Like others, I'd agree to disagree with the overall ratings provided in the article. Thunderbird with the Lightning add-on selected DOES handle full calendar functions in a single app, just like Outlook. And that was about the extent of the criticisms of Thunderbird in the article.

    But at a more fundamental basis, how can one rank an open-standards open-source rock-solid product lower than an M$ one on 'future-proofing'. Excuse me? M$ has a long-standing commitment to killing off its own products. It does this for a clear reason - to sell you the next 'replacement' product. With Open Source, you get those new features earlier (as they are not holding off to include such new features only in the 'new' product) - the proof being the tabbed-browsing etc in Firefox, which forced M$ to release a new version of IE with such features.

    And, the ultimate proof that Thunderbird IS the competitive alternative to Outlook is found in the fact that if (on Win-XP say) you have Thunderbird installed as your default email app and Outlook all of sudden pops up (though it was installed on the machine but was never invoked), Outlook goes and removes the link for Thunderbird in the START menu, replacing it with a link to Outlook. M$ would not need to seek to remove access to competitive products unless it was scared of them. And Firefox+Thunderbird is the 'natural pair' that M$ is most scared of. Both are fully standards compliant, and have no use-by date, which puts them way ahead of M$' products in terms of future-proofing. Open Source tends to only ADD features/functions (unless keeping an old feature would be in clear conflict with a new one). Whereas M$ routinely removes API support for its older technology from its newer server software, so that you HAVE to upgrade your apps. M$ Server 2003 dropped support for a wide range of APIs that were supported under NT server, causing everyone with legacy systems running to re-write them to M$' new/preferred technology. In contrast, with Open Source, you go with a standard, and you know that standard will still be available in decades to come. Some people are not old-enough to appreciate the value of standards. But anyone who's had to convert older Word Perfect documents into a later WP format etc will know the issue. Laptop battery packs have changed over the years and by-manufacturer from 12v DC up to 19v DC with no standard emerging. Imagine if car batteries were like that, and instead of getting whatever size 12v battery, you had to source the battery from only the car manufacturer! That's the difference!

    Another alternative to the Above Anonymous -- 22/06/09

    I want an email client with an organiser and a file manager which can save files and emails into 'projects'.

    Zimbra is the closest I have got so far, but it is not really what I am after.

    Something called EverDesk looks very promising, but does not support IMAP too well. Yet. A new version is due out, and when it is, I'll be trying it. Of that you can be sure.

    I really need something that can organise all the clutter on my hard drive. A sort of content management system for computers.

    And no, I have nothing to do with EverDesk, but if the new version lives up to its promise, and does not slow down my computer, I'll become a customer.

    Zimbra Anonymous -- 26/06/09

    Not accurate, Zimbra is open source so in effect free. The licence versions are for extra features.

    Zimbra Anonymous -- 26/06/09 (in reply to #320145726)

    Me again.
    The following link shows the difference in Zimbra versions. http://www.zimbra.com/products/product_editions.html

    Replacing just the server Anonymous -- 20/07/09

    Nice article =) How about for SME with around few hundred clients running outlook looking for an upgrade path?

    We all know there's lots of companies running on outlook + exchange 2003 & the upgrade fee for 2008 is just daunting... So rather then reinventing the wheel, is there a way just to replace the email server with future proofing?

    Evolution for Windows is unusable Anonymous -- 28/07/09

    Evolution port for Windows is unusable - it will hang very often, by default sidebard and calendar buttons are hidden etc. Don't try it at home....

    Microsoft Isn't Good Support Rex Alfie Lee -- 07/09/09

    I find it interesting that the writer adds in Microsoft as good support when they use the unwitting public to test their software & charge them for the privilege. Look at garbage like Vista & prior to that Millennium Edition & it's all fairly clear that they wait until the problems are highly scrutinised before doing something about it. It may take months before an issue is fixed. Malware focus may be one area that this isn't true but it was a real problem before there was so much emphasis on it that M$ was being threatened with massive backlash from the community.

    Calling M$ a support base is like calling George W Bush a good citizen. IBM & the OSS community are a support base because there is always someone there to fix a problem but half of the M$ techs I've seen don't know any more than M$ does themselves.

    What about PostBox? Peter KORTGE -- 02/10/09

    Michael:

    You've overlooked a (great ??) program called PostBox (for Mac & Windows) based on Mozilla code.

    See <http://www.postbox-inc.com/>

    Thunderbird problems Anonymous -- 18/10/09

    I use Vista 64-bit, send out church email newsletters. Thunderbird has caused me many problems for months. Some I solved by turning off autosave, and being careful to save a draft and work from the saved draft. However, I have not ever been able to put links into my emails. Once I try to put a link in, the message becomes "contaminated" somehow and "won't attach" when I try to send it out. I have grown tired of spending hours trying to get Thunderbird to work, and would love to find another email client for sending out newsletters that is free and works well.

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