View Full Version : Alternative mail clients
Hi all,
I use outlook, and have been for years - it synchs with my phone (which is very important), copes with mulitple accounts, and I like the diary feature on it. I'm not a power user by any stretch though.
When i upgrade to windows 7 I shan't be able to install office 2007 as I no longer have the disc or licence for it (I think I lost it during the move) - it's not the end of the world as I can get another one but, it got me thinking of alternatives.
Are there any worthy alternatives (for a PC) that synchs with iphones and works well?
I never found anything on a par with Outlook - I'd not consider anything else on the PC so if you can get hold of Office 2007 again then it's be my client of choice.
Thought as much - I have to say that I do like Outlook 2007 it does work very well. Not so bothered about the rest of the office package but I struggle with others.
Streeteh
18-10-2009, 17:48
Closest i've found it Thunderbird, however i still prefer outlook.
Same as everyone else - Outlook all the way.
Will YGM, may have a solution for you
Del Lardo
18-10-2009, 20:35
Used Thunderbird for my personal e-mail on my old work PC but for anything more advanced than that it's Outlook all the way.
GMail for me. Thunderbird (the current beta) in the rare instance I need to compose a mail with lots of images or formatting. Will give you the benefit of over the air sync to your phone.
Hmm I use Gmail hooked in with outlook. Then I get it to pull emails from other pop3 accounts and tell it to leave a copy in my gmail inbox. The beauty is that it allows me to keep outlook synched properly wherever I end up (lappy or home) without running a server.
Happy for any other suggestions on how to do this though :)
That's how I do it Zirax. GMail pulls in all my accounts, and I sync my clients (phone/lappy/desktop) from that. I also have a job ob my server which backs up my gmail account locally.
What about diary events and contacts?
The iPhone will grab calendar and contacts from Gmail just fine.
I don't use gmail for calenars though or contacts. :)
Why not start doing so? It should be trivial to import your current contacts and stuff into Gmail.
Just checked and gmail can import calender and contacts from outlook.
Not sure if I can get it to remain synched with the calender though? Ideally I want to add something on my local machine and it's synched with gmail rather than logging directly into gmail
Never knew you could do it... I think I'd get confused with which was my "master" calendar if I did do that though. You must appreciate that I am a very basic user, and like having a "central" area where I keep everything.
I do understand that by using gmail it means I can synch to that and then outlook would also synch to it/from it, but I'm already starting to go cross eyed thinking about it.
Ooooh now this is spiffing
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955
2-way synching of your office calender meaning you can have one calender follow you around on whatever machine or device you use. Now that I *really* like :D
Calendar is easy: http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=89955 contacts not so much, on the desktop at least. Though on the desktop, you can just use the web client anyway. I like Outlook in the corporate environment, but it doesnt give me anything special over GMail as an individual. And GMail has the added advantage of a consistent UI across platforms, though of course that's only advantage if you use something other than windows.
Denied ..... using win xp 64 :( When windows 7 comes through I will switch over.
Never knew you could do it... I think I'd get confused with which was my "master" calendar if I did do that though. You must appreciate that I am a very basic user, and like having a "central" area where I keep everything.
I do understand that by using gmail it means I can synch to that and then outlook would also synch to it/from it, but I'm already starting to go cross eyed thinking about it.
The question was replacing Outlook though, not supplementing it, though you can do that too if you wanted. The big advantage of replacing Outlook with GMail being that your mail/calendar/contacts will follow you on your phone without effort or PC required.
Ok, but does that mean being logged onto gmail on a browser? Or can I use it offline and look through my emails, folders and calendar? Is there gmail software you can install on your computer?
TBH from what I've seen there isn't really a replacement for Outlook, it really is the business for what I want - I was just curious to see if there was anything that could supersede it, but the general consensus is that it is unbeatable!
It is pretty good, but I don't think it's worth the money when you look at the free alternatives. Unless you're dym and you can get it for £9!
True! Then again I already bought it before I left MESL and got it for next to nothing then - which is why I'm peeved at losing the disc, I sent MS an email - I seemed to gather that showing a proof of purchase would be enough?
LeperousDust
19-10-2009, 14:46
Agreed with Daz, i have everything synced with Google myself, much easier, and i don't need to be on my computer or a pre defined and set up computer to access anything of mine :)
Contacts seems a little nuts sometimes though i will admit my syncing doesnt always seem to go to plan and i'll have two of things floating about places etc...
I can't be dealing with niggles and fixing or fiddling with the computer to make it do what I want. I haven't had to install windows/programs or anything for over 2 years and even then it's all been working flawlessly - I can't be dealing with duplicates or one area having more data than the rest, some things being deleted here etc...
I'll just stick with outlook on my master PC and just synch to/from that. It seems that it's the best of the bunch. :)
For those of you that do use Thunderbird and google calendar, check out the Lightning extension for Thunderbird which provides calendar functionality to Thunderbird and will sync with Google :)
Was expecting you to say mutt Garp ;D
Dont think there's a version of lightning for the current Thunderbird beta unfortunately for me. The nightly's are compatible but were a little unstable last time I looked, will try them again :)
Was expecting you to say mutt Garp ;D
Mutt is awesome and handles IMAP a lot better than Thunderbird does, but I wouldn't recommend it to any old Tom, Dick and Harry :D
Didn't know Mutt did IMAP. I could do with some of that to clean up my three mail accounts that are full of junk.
Didn't know Mutt did IMAP. I could do with some of that to clean up my three mail accounts that are full of junk.
That's pretty much all I use Mutt for at the moment. Thunderbird just locks up completely and tends to hammer IMAP servers when deleting e-mails. It's got some stupid timeout thing on it that causes it to open more and more simultaneous connections and I've watched it bring mail servers to it's knees.
That's pretty much all I use Mutt for at the moment. Thunderbird just locks up completely and tends to hammer IMAP servers when deleting e-mails. It's got some stupid timeout thing on it that causes it to open more and more simultaneous connections and I've watched it bring mail servers to it's knees.
Thunderbird is a hideous client when it comes to IMAP. It is getting better but there is still a long way to go.
One of the items on the T3 enhancement list was 'Improve IMAP robustness'. Certainly feels a lot better but I haven't used it in anger.
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