Alternatives to Outlook Express
What's wrong with Outlook Express? Poor security:
Microsoft has too tightly (can we say needlessly?)
integrated OE with Internet Explorer and
Windows, and it's the most widely used email
client. That makes OE a juicy target to attack.
Reminds me of the Gary Larson cartoon of
a deer in the woods with a big bull's eye
on one side. Caption: Bummer of a birthmark.
If you use Outlook Express you also know
it's darn hard to back up your messages,
address book, account settings, mail filters,
etc. The "Outlook Express Freebie Backup" program makes it easy to back these
things up.
Outlook Express isn't a bad email client
if you "lock it down" to avoid the many hazards of email.
However, you might want to switch to a more
secure client that makes backing these things
up easier. Some of them keep your messages
and all your settings in one easy-to-back-up
file. The table below describes the main
contenders. Find more information in this
article on clients at ZDNet and this description of clients from the "List of Lists".
| Client |
Cost |
Comments |
Backup |
| Outlook Express |
Free |
Vulnerable to security problems. |
You need an extra program to back up OE. |
| Pegasus |
Free |
A powerful and venerated classic. Strong
on security. You can review messages on the
server and delete the ones you don't want
before you download the good ones. |
Messages and settings are all kept in the
"Home mailbox location" folder,
which makes it easy to back them up. |
| Eudora |
$49.95 |
Users rave about it. Especially good for
heavy email users. Has an excellent spam
filter. |
Everything that you need to back up is located
in one folder. |
| Courier |
$29.95 |
Powerful, secure and easy to use. Courier
is my favorite client -- the one I use every
day. |
Messages, settings, addresses are all contained
in one file that you can back up very simply. |
| Calypso |
Free |
The predecessor to Courier, and almost as
good. |
Messages, settings, addresses are all contained
in one file that you can back up very simply. |
| Mozilla |
Free |
The Mozilla suite includes a good, straightforward
email program The Mozilla browser itself
is more secure and more advanced than Outlook
Express. |
Your mailbox and settings are all saved in
your "profile" folder, so they
are easy to back up. |
| Opera |
$39 |
The Opera suite includes the "M2"
email client. M2 is a powerful, innovative
program. |
You need to back up several files and folders,
but they are well defined. |
| Thunderbird |
Free |
A clean, well-designed email client that
is part of the Firefox project. Thunderbird
is secure, and incorporates spam blocking. |
Your mailbox and settings are all saved in
one "profile" folder, which makes
them easy to back up. |
| PocoMail |
$34.95 |
A secure and very up-to-date program. Many
features to make handling lots of email easy.
If I weren't using Courier, I'd try this
one. |
Your mailbox and address book are in standard
formats, which makes them easy to backMessages,
settings, addresses are all contained in
one file that you can back up very simply.. |
Trying other email clients
Which email client you pick is largely a
matter of taste -- just like cars, computers
or clothes. You can easily try out alternative
clients though. Just enable the option to
"leave email on the server." Then you can still download your
mail with your regular browser until you
find the one you like.
For example, in Courier, after you've created
your account(s) do the following: Go to accounts
> right-click your account(s) > click
"Properties" > select the "Incoming
Mail" tab > click "Leave message
on mail server after it is retrieved".
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