15 replies to this topic

[CHART]

I tend to run a legitimate ship when it comes to software licenses. Last year I moved to OpenOffice because I felt that I was somewhat abusing of my MS office 2003 pirated copy.

Now that I have moved to OpenOffice I am happy. I am legally using software, I am saving money and I can get everything I need done with regards to Office software.

I have but one piece of illegitimate software left over on my machines. Outlook 2003. (I think I here someone knocking on the door... It must be the MS police).

I could buy Outlook 2007 for two machines and be done with it, or I could move to Thunderbird (because I run I tight ship by nature, and like to save money were I can).

My question to you all is. Has anyone moved over to Thunderbird from Outlook and was able to live with the change. Or should I just bite the bullet and go out and buy Outlook (so those MS policeman can stop 'haunting' me down).

Thanks

[merft]

Thunderbird alone does not have a calendar program. But they have released Lightning which does.

http://www.mozilla.o...ndar/lightning/

[GISRox]

I've been using Eudora since 1995 or so and love the application. http://www.eudora.com/

It is going Open Source this year, but you can buy a full version for $20USD right now.

I use Outlook for my day job stuff, but I still prefer Eudora for my day to day and consulting e-mail and it's so darn easy to configure and use multiple e-mail accounts.

[benbakelaar]

My question to you all is. Has anyone moved over to Thunderbird from Outlook and was able to live with the change. Or should I just bite the bullet and go out and buy Outlook (so those MS policeman can stop 'haunting' me down).

Thanks

... as a sub topic to make this post a bit more interesting.... what percentage of illegitimate software do you have on your machines....

It depends on how you use your email software. If you use the calendar a lot, and the "daily" overview page, you might miss it.. but you already have gotten away from the Office integration with Outlook, so there's not much more to miss IMO. I never had any issues with Thunderbird, I just missed the pretty fonts in Outlook

[natcase]

I've been using Eudora since 1995 or so and love the application. http://www.eudora.com/

It is going Open Source this year, but you can buy a full version for $20USD right now.

I use Outlook for my day job stuff, but I still prefer Eudora for my day to day and consulting e-mail and it's so darn easy to configure and use multiple e-mail accounts.

I second this. I use it at home and work and I love it. The work version is the paid version which includes a pretty effective spam filter (my spam to content ratio is around 20:1 at the moment, and Eudora catches maybe 90% of the spam with very little false junking). The home version has a little advert in the corner, no spam filter, and is free. Not much spam at home (I think earthlink filters it out).

The new open source version will be Thunderbird-based.

[frax]

So I assume that you are not using an Exchange server (then outlook is a given). What I also like about outlook are the really good plugins that I use, but maybe things like that are available (or built-in) into Thunderbird as well.

[BEAVER]

Anybody else using Open Office? What a great program. I don't know why anyone would buy MS Office since the Open Office was released. The company I work for just installed over 110 copies instead fo buying Microsoft product.

[frax]

Jacques - you are not considering going with the full office suite? (Such as Office Premium) I would, if I were in your shoes. But then again, I have been an MS Office poweruser since high-school, and I have also done some work as an Access application developer.

I find Excel and Access as essential tools in my GIS and data related tasks - I often use those to manage and 'bake' data.

I haven't tried OO, and it may be ok for standard usage, but it doesn't include an Access alternative (as far as I know) and I wouldn't count on the spreadsheet component being as powerful as Excel (almost doesn't count in all situations...)

[Hans van der Maarel]

I find Excel and Access as essential tools in my GIS and data related tasks - I often use those to manage and 'bake' data.

I haven't tried OO, and it may be ok for standard usage, but it doesn't include an Access alternative (as far as I know) and I wouldn't count on the spreadsheet component being as powerful as Excel (almost doesn't count in all situations...)

The spreadsheet in OO 2 is rather powerful. Whether it's as powerful as Excel I wouldn't know, because I don't use Office... It works for me though.

The database component in OO 2 (called "Base") is something of a failure. It may be due to my machine or something, but I never really got it to work. I'm hoping for future releases to be better.

Do give OO 2 a try. It's free after all There is one major advantage though: no Clippy...

[BEAVER]

I can do every function in OO and more than in Excel. It opens all the Microsoft files as well. It runs much faster too.

[GISRox]

I haven't tried OO, and it may be ok for standard usage, but it doesn't include an Access alternative (as far as I know) and I wouldn't count on the spreadsheet component being as powerful as Excel (almost doesn't count in all situations...)

I'm more or less in the same camp as Frax. I'm a big Access user and OO simply didn't offer what I needed. I think OO is great for many average users or those who don't really require the more advanced features. For my needs, I'll stick with Microsoft.

[CHART]

Thanks for all the great responses.

Tom, Paul, Ben, Nat, Hugo Hans and Beaver.

On the matter of Outlook (the original tread for this topic ) I will wait for the Eudora launch of the open source version. Thanks Nat for mentioning that it will have a 'link' to the Thunderbird project. Lightning project mentioned by Tom is also neet.

As Beaver mentioned I to am able to do everything I need done with OO. OO does it all for me. (it read Access, Dbase, MySQL etc...).

Please keep the comments coming in. I think that for small to medium size businesses the OO, Eudora, Thunderbird, Sunbird projects are quite interesting.

Think about Beaver's post: 110 copies of OO vs MS .... now how much does that save.... PHP-Apache vs ASP-MSServer etc... and the list goes on.


Cheers,

(my predictions... Bears by 3... but the again it might be Peyton Manning's day)

[travelbug]

Jacques,
this is an older post but if you're still reading it, you might want to check out GMail for small enterprise. Unlike Outlook and the others, it's a web-based service, which I actually prefer, as you can access it from anywhere. You get to use your own domain name, and can manage up to 25 email accounts...for free. Oh, and the spam guard is excellent

[DonovanK]

While this is an old subject, a lot has changed in that time. I've used Lotus Notes, Thunderbird, Gmail, and Apple's Mail program. On an Apple, I really like Apple's mail program. Otherwise I really like Google's GMail. I believe they also have a calendar. For a small business, I would go the Gmail route unless you really love Microsoft.

[trucmuch]

I use Outlook for a long time now and it's very useful. I appreciate the ability of using a single calendar for several people involved in a common project for example.