Microsoft Outlook

[thatpfunk]

I was reading the thread about Hotmail and a lot of people were ripping on Outlook...

I know very close to nothing about computers, why should I not be using Outlook on my home computer?

FWIW, I only use it for business and poker related email. I have been using hotmail for the majority of my email. I plan on updating to gmail soon (if any one wants to throw me an invite, id like them forever), but why should I stop using Outlook?

Thanks,
A computer idiot

[[censored]]

I have 49 more invites if anyone else needs one.

[wacki]

Outlook has a reputation as a breeding ground for viruses/trojans. I haven't read the security websites in a over a year, but Microsoft used to be pretty bad about patching holes. A network admin I've worked for in the past wouldn't let any of us use it.

But like I said, I'm not up to speed on current security.

[thatpfunk]

But basically if you are only emailing with people who you trust and you're not going to be accepting any attachments, it is cool?

[wacki]

No (I think). In the past if somebody you trust gets infected, and you read their e-mail that was mailed to you by the trojan/virus/etc, you could could be in trouble. There were numerous holes that allowed your computer to get infected by simply reading someone elses mail. Again, I don't know the current status of these holes, but I've found it's a whole lot easier not to deal with it. Outlook is the most popular email client, and it is what all of the hackers/Microsoft haters are going to write code for. It's simply not worth my time trying to worry about it.

Eudora, Thunderbird, there are plenty of other ways to go.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

"If you've lately taken to cursing at your current e-mail program, then I suggest you give Thunderbird a try. It's the best thing to happen to e-mail in a long time."
- Forbes

[thatpfunk]

Thanks Wacki, appreciated.

[shadow29]

Is there a reason to use Thunderbird if I have Gmail?

[wacki]

I only use it to manage multiple e-mail accounts. Gmail notifier (envelope in the taskbar) pretty much takes care of everything, so basically, no.

[pshreck]

Outlook makes writing viruses about a million times easier, and using it can affect you and all those in your address book with viruses.

[AEKDBet]

[ QUOTE ]
Is there a reason to use Thunderbird if I have Gmail?

[/ QUOTE ]

Newsgroups for one. Another is space if you have over a gig worth of emails - not that hard to do actually. Another is having a hard copy on a drive, instead of over the web.

[wacki]

good post

[Evan]

If you got Thunderbird I'd reccomend getting the extensions that minimizes it to the system tray. It makes it way more usable.

Here's the link if you're interested:
http://minimizetotray.mozdev.org/

[astroglide]

i would trust google's storage infinitely more than any single hard drive. on a related note, thunderbird needs to do a better job of handling migrations and get something like a standard single-file format similar to pst.

[JDErickson]

Outlook used to be terrible for viruses. They have made recent advances that make it much better though.

I still wouldn't suggest it for individuals but for Corporate users with the proper virus filters it works great.