Microsoft kills off Outlook Express

ZDNet ^ | August 13, 2003 | Angus Kidman

[HAL9000]

It might be the world's most widely distributed e-mail client, but Microsoft has confirmed that it has no intention of further developing Outlook Express.

"[Outlook Express] just sits where it is," said Dan Leach, lead product manager for Microsoft's information worker product management group. "The technology doesn't go away, but no new work is being done. It is consumer e-mail in an early iteration, and our investment in the consumer space is now focused around Hotmail and MSN. That's where we're putting the emphasis in terms of new investment and new development work."

While Outlook Express has always been most popular with individual consumers, many business users have also utilised it, in part because it is part of the default Windows install. Microsoft executives are hoping those users will now switch to the full-blown Outlook client (and pay for an Office licence in the process).

"IMAP is just not a very rich protocol," Steve Conn, Exchange Server product manager, told ZDNet Australia during the company's Tech Ed conference. "The great majority of people used Outlook Express because they weren't on a LAN environment, and Outlook was just too fat for them."

The currently-in-beta Outlook 2003 client has much lower bandwidth requirements, he said. In May, Microsoft revealed that it was no longer planning to release standalone versions of Internet Explorer, which includes the Outlook Express functionality. Future releases will only be made available as part of the Windows platform.

[HAL9000]

Good riddance to this hopeless piece of virus-infested junk.

Microsoft executives are hoping those users will now switch to the full-blown Outlook client (and pay for an Office licence in the process).

Most of those users would be better off getting rid of Microsoft products altogether.

[okkev68]

So how do I move all my outlook express files and folders to Outlook. That's the only reason I use express. I have over a year of email in express and have been to lazy to convert it to regular outlook.

[Lazamataz]

Most of those users would be better off getting rid of Microsoft products altogether.

Easy does it, sparky. I make my living on Microsoft junk. :o)

[nutmeg]

ping

[cryptical]

I saw a bumper sticker last week that said:

Microsoft Sucks, but I need the money.

[Lazamataz]

I saw a bumper sticker last week that said: Microsoft Sucks, but I need the money.

.NET rocks. So does Visual Fox.

I've got some Java time too, but I prefer C#.net.

[Arkinsaw]

our investment in the consumer space is now focused around Hotmail and MSN

Not a chance am I going to do all my email off of Hotmail.

[mhking]

No problem. More reason to shift to Eudora or Mozilla's Thunderbird client.

[xrp]

Or FreeBSD and pine!

[Belial]

Or FreeBSD and pine!

Why not just use an abacus to send email while you're at it?

[cryptical]

I prefer Mutt over Pine or Elm after using all three.

[two23]

You can open up Outlook and click on "File" then click on "Import Export" and a wizard dialog box will come up.
Outlook Express also has a limited Import/Export feature.
I like Outlook Express...it has features for embedding sounds, color and photo's that I use daily. Outlook is just too clunky. Hotmail is junk.

[Gorzaloon]

No problem. More reason to shift to Eudora or Mozilla's Thunderbird client.

Eudora is a fine program..I have used it since the beginning.

Friends don't let Friends use Outlook, and no one with anything to say uses Hotmail. Nothing from Hotmail ever gets to my client. In one sense, it's too bad, but spammers forge Hotmail into so many of their headers that MS's landsharks can't (Or won't) keep up with them. Further, I had a hotmail address used for throwaway purposes. I had a nonguessable, obscure emial address, and to this day remain convinced the MS or its emplyees sell these addresses to spammers. Open a hotmail account, never use it, but check it once a month, and watch what happens.

[Trampled by Lambs]

There is salvation and its name is Bloomba..

http://www.bloomba.com/

You can make it look almost just like Outlook or Outlook express if that your thing except without the virus danger and other Microsloth fun. It does newsgroups also, just like OE.

(I have no stake in this software, I just like it a lot..)

[mhking]

Open a hotmail account, never use it, but check it once a month, and watch what happens.

I've got one for that purpose - I only use it as a landing pad for my MSN groups. I generally get anywhere from three to five messages a day on it.

Thanks to MailWasher, I end up deleting them automatically.

[xrp]

Actually, my fallback is smoke signals.

[SunStar]

Eudora 6.0 will be out soon, with built-in spam filtering.

[Range Rover]

Not a widely-known thing but you can access Hotmail through Outlook Express....just set it up as a new service. Since Hotmail is a MS property, they made it fairly easy to do - takes only a few clicks.

You lose the ads (hence the reason nobody is publicising it all that much) and the lousy interface that Homail's web interface has (goodbye checkboxes)and you still have the ability to access Hotmail via the web when you're away from your primary PC.

Outlook went south on me last night, so I'm going to find/install something better tonight. Just got an older box up and running on Red Hat and another running ArkLinux which was probably the most idiotproof install I've ever experienced (I would recommend it to anyone looking to replace an "outdated" Pentium or PII machine - don't toss it, give it a new lease on life....it's a refreshing change) Time to make these machines my Web and Mail machines, I guess.

[two23]

Thanks! It looks pretty good!

[absalom01]

And why in the world would you need those programs when we have EMACS?

sheesh.

[vollmond]

And why in the world would you need those programs when we have EMACS?

I've heard that EMACS is a great Operating System but a lousy text editor.

[Michael Barnes]

heh-heh...

[Moose4]

There's also a good mail client called Pegasus Mail (www.pmail.com). It looks nothing like Outlook, but that's not always a bad thing. :) I've been using it for 6 years now and will only install Outlook on my home machine when I (supposedly) get the Viewsonic V37 Pocket PC that's coming to me because my company bought me an MSDN subscription. It supposedly requires Outlook to sync properly. I'll install it, mind you, but I won't actually *use* it.

I'm a COBOL programmer on IBM mainframes. That MSDN subscription does me no good, but it'll get me a free Pocket PC, so who am I to doubt my company?

}:-)4

[Michael121]

I have an email address in express that for the last year has gotten a total of 3 messages all 3 came from my ISP about services. Not one piece of spam.

I have a main account that gets only responses to those I send out.

Then I have the one I send when it asks for email address... it gets 3 - 5 spams a day.

[Drango]

Or FreeBSD and pine!

Are you on crack?

[Robert_Paulson2]

Mozilla works nicely.
Add it to a *nix os platform and you get a pretty advanced product, without any abusive licensing fees... ever.

Good bye William "Red China" Gates.

[evilC]

Although I use Pegasus as an e-mail client, Mozilla Thunderbird looked good after an admittedly short test (I checked it more out of interest then any unhappiness with Pegasus).

Thunderbird has Baysian spam filtering like the stand alone POPfile and is probably close to LookOut in its look and feel (I have very little experience with Outlook/Outlook Express so I can not be sure)

[anniegetyourgun]

Can't get to the link.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Good riddance to this hopeless piece of virus-infested junk.

I believe you are confusing Outlook with Outlook Express.

Outlook is able to execute Visual Basic code, which allows hackers to send porn to everyone in your address book.

Outlook Express is just another passive email client.

[Robert_Paulson2]

.. and no virus "functionality" is built in to the mozilla mail program either.

which you knew.

[HAL9000]

Can't get to the link.

It's working fine here.

Try Google News for some alternate sites.

[Robert_Paulson2]

indeed. what you said

headline... "Microsoft kills off Outlook Express" at last, a mercy-killing that even a conservative can support...

I am getting LOTs of the msblast crap from folks who are on outlook, and outlook express today. Gates and the virus gangsters are doing that thing they do... so well.

you done the mozilla 1.4 yet?
EZ install? *nix box?

[absalom01]

Not so sure about that. It's a truely great text editor, but ONLY if your intitials are RMS, and you write only in PERL.

As an OS, well, the herd has moved on to HURD.

Nerds on a hot, slow summer afternoon....

[mhking]

you done the mozilla 1.4 yet?

Believe it or not, I'm on a Win2K box, but I've got firewall and virus protect six ways to Sunday. I've had more than one person try to nail me with it, but I appear to be immune (at least for now).

I'm still on Outlook 2K (I keep putting off switching to Thunderbird), but I've got Firebird 0.6.1 (Mozilla 1.6 pre-A) as my primary browser.

[BlazingArizona]

I've got some Java time too, but I prefer C#.net.

So you're the other guy who uses it!

[AppyPappy]

I liked you better when you were a homeless junkie.

[Robert_Paulson2]

I've got Firebird 0.6.1

---

and your impression?
does it have an email program in it?

[mhking]

and your impression? does it have an email program in it?

I love it - Firebird is the browser only; the commensurrate mail browser is Thunderbird. I'm pretty impressed with it thus far.

You can get them both at Mozilla.org.

[Eala]

More reason to shift to Eudora or Mozilla's Thunderbird client.

Interesting. I've been using Mozilla for some time now (right now, in fact) -- but I haven't kept up to date on development activities and hadn't heard about this...

[Drango]

How about some costs, (if you know)? There has to be a trade-off. OE is free to me but I'd switch in a heartbeat if the cost make sense.

[evilC]

FYI Links to Thunderbird and Pegasus are in my reply #27

[Question_Assumptions]

Why not just use an abacus to send email while you're at it?

I suppose you'll really be surprised that I read Free Republic (and am writing this reply, in fact) via Lynx.

[LibKill]

Easy does it, sparky. I make my living on Microsoft junk. :o)

Vampire Pride?

:)

[xrp]

No, are you?

[Captain Peter Blood]

I have been using IncrediMail for almost two years now and have updated a couple of times. I find it works well and it can access mulitple e-mail accounts to check for mail very easily. I have tried some of the others mentioned but found this one very much to my liking. Anyone else using this??

[wazoo1031]

Thank God! that invasive crap-laden-good-for-nothing useless icon will disappear!

[Robert_Paulson2]

I say "Sell it to the chinese, billy gates. We're all stocked up on 'secure as a sieve' virus-magnet software here."

[Hank Rearden]

It should have died years ago, from sheer embarrassment. Outlook (all versions) is just a virus petri dish.

Get Eudora, you're done.

Oh, and stay away from those gay Macs.

[Calpernia]

Bypass regular Outlook and go to Pegasus!

[Calpernia]

Eudora is good too. I am just hooked on Pegasus.