So what I didnt know was an experiment in open source is actually coming to an end, at least partially. Ive been using Thunderbird for my e-mail for the last couple of years, but within the last 12 months or so, Ive felt an increasing pinch with not having access to a calendar and a real, full-featured contact list on a regular basis. I tried to maintain the Palm Desktop software, but without a Palm device, it was sort of pointless to work with the headaches. The contact management (address book) in Thunderbird is little more than a list of names and e-mail addresses, and increasingly, I find myself needing much more than that. Id like to add multiple address books that arent connected (to maintain old and company contacts without polluting my personal contacts, etc), and thats not an option, either.
Long caveat short, Im going back to Outlook. At first, I thought Id just use it for the superlative contact management. Then I started thinking about the planner aspect – the fact that birthdays and appointments as well as contacts show up automatically and transfer to the palm device that Im certainly going to get soon – and it seemed like Id be leaving it open more than Id thought. Then I wondered why I would leave Thunderbird open at all – Outlook supposedly does e-mail as well.
In my recent work with Outlook, Ive learned that the spam filter is crap compared to the offering my mozilla. I cant designate mail as spam, and it doesnt seem to learn anything, but thats a price Im willing to pay for this phase of the great experiment with computers. On my laptop Im going to stick with Thunderbird, and Im using it for personal mail at work, but for my workstation, the central computer in my computing lifestyle, Im going to use Outlook. For now.
Does that make me a worse person?
