As several readers have pointed out: I do not like change. This fact is most obvious in the Jack in the Box Rant. However, after using Outlook Express for over 5 years, I feel it is time to cut the cord and move on.
My current choice of weapon to fight the E-Mail battle is the Mozilla E-Mail client. I have been using the Mozilla browser for well over 2 years and even though I was extremely against any other browser up to that point (I had a bad experience with early versions of Netscape), Mozilla won me over after only the first day. At that time, I never looked back. I cannot say enough about the quality and speed of this browser. The current version is Mozilla 1.6. The price is right: free.
I have been kicking around the idea of dumping Outlook Express for a long time. I have a large amount of customizations with regards to E-Mail filtering and it seemed like a daunting task to transition to anything but the next version of Outlook Express. I was wrong. The Mozilla E-Mail client now has “trainable” junk mail filtering (which makes my previous technique obsolete), custom message filtering and actions, plus much more. Not to mention the fact that it will “never” be affected by the large amount of E-Mail viruses that automatically execute of which Microsoft products are famous for, options of getting rid of “external” images spammers use for tracking purposes (making the “preview pane” a security issue), and the ability to disable Java from running inside of E-mails. It is fast, powerful, and easy to use. Enough said.
Of course, a down side to this change exists: I must get accustom to the “new” way of doing things. As a result, once again the broken record turns on the platter and I am behind on E-Mail. I should be caught up over the weekend, but do not hold me to that statement as anything can happen.
Even though this news posting sounds like a sales pitch, I have nothing to do with the development of Mozilla, nor get any kick back from them. I notify people of quality products because I enjoy them and find them useful, not because I get rich from them. I do urge everyone to give Mozilla a try. If not the E-Mail client, try the browser. You may be happy with what you find.
Note: The current version of Netscape is built on “older” Mozilla code. So, if you are using Netscape, give the “latest” Mozilla a shot as you could be using a dated product and a slower/more bloated suite.