Kindler, gentler freeware equivalent of Outlook

[Wayfarer]

Hi,

I've been away for a while.

Anyway, I was a devout Eudora user for years, then I was computerless
for a while and used Yahoo! (web) Mail for email (duh), contacts and
calendar. Then I "reacquired" computer access and was in lust (or
something) with MS Outlook (gasp of horror!) because I could synch data
with Yahoo.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I now spend my days and half of my
nights feeding Outlook's near insatiable need for more data (..and more,
and more).

I'm fed up, and I started looking for a program (or programs that are
simpler, free and not too cheesy looking but have much of the same
functionality (address book, phone dialer, contact manager, calendar,
reminders, tasks, etc.

I've tried a few freeware apps, but they were either too simple (e.g.-
not enough contact fields) or they didn't meet the uncheesy rule.

Any suggestions anyone?

TIA
Neill (aka Wayfarer)

 

[Michael Forsythe]

Hi,

I've been away for a while.

Anyway, I was a devout Eudora user for years, then I was computerless
for a while and used Yahoo! (web) Mail for email (duh), contacts and
calendar. Then I "reacquired" computer access and was in lust (or
something) with MS Outlook (gasp of horror!) because I could synch data
with Yahoo.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I now spend my days and half of my
nights feeding Outlook's near insatiable need for more data (..and more,
and more).

I'm fed up, and I started looking for a program (or programs that are
simpler, free and not too cheesy looking but have much of the same
functionality (address book, phone dialer, contact manager, calendar,
reminders, tasks, etc.

I've tried a few freeware apps, but they were either too simple (e.g.-
not enough contact fields) or they didn't meet the uncheesy rule.

Any suggestions anyone?

TIA
Neill (aka Wayfarer)

As far as stand-alone programs go, have you tried Mozilla Thunderbird?
It is coming along nicely, although it is still a work in progress.
Personally I prefer the Mozilla 1.7 suite with its excellent browser and
"Mail and News" component. Excellent calendar software is available as
an extension for both.

 

[El Gee]

Hi,

I've been away for a while.

Anyway, I was a devout Eudora user for years, then I was computerless
for a while and used Yahoo! (web) Mail for email (duh), contacts and
calendar. Then I "reacquired" computer access and was in lust (or
something) with MS Outlook (gasp of horror!) because I could synch
data with Yahoo.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I now spend my days and half of my
nights feeding Outlook's near insatiable need for more data (..and
more, and more).

I'm fed up, and I started looking for a program (or programs that are
simpler, free and not too cheesy looking but have much of the same
functionality (address book, phone dialer, contact manager, calendar,
reminders, tasks, etc.

I've tried a few freeware apps, but they were either too simple (e.g.-
not enough contact fields) or they didn't meet the uncheesy rule.

Any suggestions anyone?

TIA
Neill (aka Wayfarer)

While I agree that the Moz client (with calendar xpi) is great, it is
not a substitute for Outlook. Outlook has all the clients in a tree
structure that allows drag and drop and does that very well. I am
forced to use Outlook at work and even though it is a M$ product, it
does the job well (on newer versions). I wished Evoltion would be
ported to Wintel. or maybe someone can take Palm Desktop and pull an
Emeril Lagasse on it and "kick it up a notch" by giving it an e-mail
client.

??


--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
El Gee

Did you hear the one about the dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac?
He would stay up late every night and wonder if there was a dog.


Remove yourhat to reply ... but it may take a while.
Best to go to www.mistergeek.com and reply from there.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[John H.]

While I agree that the Moz client (with calendar xpi) is great, it is
not a substitute for Outlook. Outlook has all the clients in a tree
structure that allows drag and drop and does that very well. I am
forced to use Outlook at work and even though it is a M$ product, it
does the job well (on newer versions). I wished Evoltion would be
ported to Wintel. or maybe someone can take Palm Desktop and pull an
Emeril Lagasse on it and "kick it up a notch" by giving it an e-mail
client.

??

I've got some Outlook alternatives on my site, if you want to take a look.

www.jhoodsoft.org check out the MS Office Alternatives - the 2nd subpage.

 

[El Gee]

I've got some Outlook alternatives on my site, if you want to take a
look.

www.jhoodsoft.org check out the MS Office Alternatives - the 2nd
subpage.

Sidekick 98 does not come close, I am sorry to say. I wish it did. No
one wants to be slaved to M$ Good idea, but clunky in design (my
..02 only).

The option you list is the same as the previous poster, Moz Suite with
the Calendar plugin. Not bad, but I think we are looking for something
like Evolution (which has not been ported to Wintel yet). I have been
to your site before and you have some great ideas, but for those of us
who have been trapped in Outlook world, nothing is a good replacement.

Aethera is not too bad, but still not in the ballpark yet.

http://www.thekompany.com/projects/aethera/

It is not complete yet... sort of in beta.

--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
El Gee

Did you hear the one about the dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac?
He would stay up late every night and wonder if there was a dog.


Remove yourhat to reply ... but it may take a while.
Best to go to www.mistergeek.com and reply from there.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[John H.]

Sidekick 98 does not come close, I am sorry to say. I wish it did. No
one wants to be slaved to M$ Good idea, but clunky in design (my
.02 only).

The option you list is the same as the previous poster, Moz Suite with
the Calendar plugin. Not bad, but I think we are looking for something
like Evolution (which has not been ported to Wintel yet). I have been
to your site before and you have some great ideas, but for those of us
who have been trapped in Outlook world, nothing is a good replacement.

Aethera is not too bad, but still not in the ballpark yet.

http://www.thekompany.com/projects/aethera/

It is not complete yet... sort of in beta.

It depends on what you are using Outlook for, I guess.
I think part of the problem is that Outlook does a lot of things fairly
well, but really does nothing exceptionally.

There are even groupware solutions that are OSS/Free (PostNuke,
PKProjekt and OOGroupware come to mind). I was thinking of including
them, but they usually require a running an Apache server with PHP at least.

Thanks for the tips though, I'll keep my eye on Aethera and Evolution.

John H.

 

[Chris Dubea]

It's not there yet, but Chandler will eventually be the answer to
your quest. have a look at www.osafoundation.org. It's pretty
interesting to watch the development of an application done this way.
I've got to give it to Mitch Kapor, he got el-largo cajones.


===========================================================================
Chris

 

[El Gee]

It's not there yet, but Chandler will eventually be the answer to
your quest. have a look at www.osafoundation.org. It's pretty
interesting to watch the development of an application done this way.
I've got to give it to Mitch Kapor, he got el-largo cajones.


=======================================================================
==== Chris

It may turn out to be something nice. I looked at it and could tell it
has a lot of possiblitities, even though it was a skeleton proggit that
you could do nothing with

Thanx for the tip!

--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
El Gee

Did you hear the one about the dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac?
He would stay up late every night and wonder if there was a dog.


Remove yourhat to reply ... but it may take a while.
Best to go to www.mistergeek.com and reply from there.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++