Switching from Microsoft Outlook to Mozilla Thunderbird
Last week, I switched to Thunderbird because I thought there was an email problem with my hosting service, DreamHost.com. They announced that they were under some kind of attack and, at the same time, my former email client Microsoft Outlook kept dropping its connection. While I was managing my email from the web-based application, I did the typical tech-support dance with DreamHost.com—featuring tracert command output.
Eventually, I downloaded Thunderbird on a whim in some fuzzy process of elimination. When Thunderbird connected immediately, I instantly had the typical devout capitalist reaction to Bill Gates. You know the thought—something like, “The richest ‘software architect’ in the world should be able to design software to connect to an email server—or in the very least provide a meaningful error message as to why it can’t.” Yes, of course Bill Gates did not personally design Microsoft Outlook but you should know the CEO spiel about being responsible for “everything” going on under his “watch”—you know that “not on my watch!” stuff…
And the DreamHost.com people—who do not even offer Microsoft products to their customers—‘defended’ Microsoft Outlook suggesting that some anti-virus program I might be using is perhaps stopping Outlook from working correctly. But ‘for some reason,’ after over five years of using Outlook without question, I still moved toward Thunderbird. This started largely because Thunderbird was able to import Microsoft Outlook folders. When I saw that this happened with relative ease, I evaluated my Outlook footprint:
- I use Outlook for email. As a security precaution, I download email headers initially to my Inbox. I need to be able to label email, put them in ‘real’ folders and find them later with some kind ‘virtual’ folder.
- I use the Outlook address book.
- I use the Outlook calendar to track birthdays.
- I use Outlook, very rarely, to store PDF files—and other items that are not email messages. Thunderbird knocked out the first requirement on my list with ease. This is the most important. The other three bits are, for the most part, literally still under development, listed in order of increasing unavailability. The main Mozilla thrust in this direction is The Sunbird Project. Adding Sunbird to Thunderbird meant that I could import iCalendar recurring events (exported from Outlook) into Thunderbird. This means that my birthdays are tracked. Unfortunately, I cannot associate these events with contacts.
I still need Outlook for corporate, Exchange-Server-level messaging and “collaboration” but my personal, “small business” stuff is now cross-platform and Open Source. All of this is Microsoft’s fault. My Outlook footprint has been so small because of the catastrophic macro virus debacle that almost ‘destroyed’ Microsoft Office. It would have been harder to switch from Outlook had I, over the years, written extensive amounts of VBA code for it. But, somehow, the “security enhancements” in Microsoft Office discouraged me.
Nevertheless, I am still devoted to Microsoft Office Word. This Blog post is generated from CleanXHTML for Microsoft Office Word 2003. I am not impressed by any open source alternatives to Word that I am aware of…