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Should I Move To (Gasp!) Microsoft Outlook As My Main Email Client ??

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tinjaw:
The more I install useful software on my computer, the more I find that Microsoft Outlook seems to be the only thing developers integrate with in terms of email / PIM / Calender / etc. clients. I mostly use web-based mail clients, and run Thunderbird on my laptop so I can have access to some emails offline as well as write emails offline for sending later. However, I am seriously thinking about moving to Microsoft Outlook fulltime because everything else seems to integrate with it and only it.

What are your comments? Tips? Warnings?

Caveat:  :( I am looking for a serious discussion. Please don't turn this into a Windows vs. Linux/Mac/Whatever religious debate/war. There are plenty of other threads covering that territory. Thank you.  :up:

Curt:
At the moment I am forced to Outlook Express, so I miss my Outlook 2003 sooo much! - for exactly the very reason you started out with: there are so many plugins, addons, to make life easy. I think Outlook is like Explorer: it is okay but not much, but then there are the addons, plugins, and suddenly you have something powerful!!

Josh:
Yes, I agree with Curt. Everything and its mother has been implimented for outlook 2003 or 2007 as a plugin, addon, or what have you (EXCEPT FOR THE BLOODY WAY TO SAVE THE FOLDER LIST LAYOUT AND NOT HAVE THEM AUTO-COLLAPSE ON RESTART!!!!!!). Outlook offers so much power that it is perhaps the single most USEFUL tool int he office suite.

Grorgy:
Even just as it is, which is the way I use it, now that I've moved back from thunderbird, its ok, if you have specific things you need to do that have plugins or add ons readily available then it seems to me there is not a lot of options, and given its functionality its resource usage isn't all that bad either

tinjaw:
 :-[ Doh! My bad. I didn't explain why I based this post on the premise that MS Outlook is a "bad thing" (tm). Um, guilty as charged on, not one, but two accounts. First, for not mentioning it, and second, for basing my opinion of Outlook on the last version I used, which was probably seven or more years ago. So, I guess that I am being lazy here (well actually, since I am very very busy these days, let's call that exhibiting beneficial procrastination since my return on investment for playing with Outlook for hours when I need to be working is, well, small.) And thrice guilty for not practicing what I preach and knowing that workflow of Tasks/Events/Email is a very subjective thing and I should just try it out for myself.

So, I guess I was just whining that the path I have chosen to date wasn't the mostest bestest there is. Therefore, please allow me to rephrase my question to ask, "Are there any pitfalls you can help me avoid when I begin using Microsoft Outlook as my main PIM & Email client?"

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