Well, every so often and from time to time, I’m overcome with “Open Source Fever”, in which I go buck wild and decide to ween myself away from Microsoft products. Like quitting smoking, quitting the Microsoft addiction is one of the toughest things a person can do.
Today I got hit with the Open Source bug, and hit hard. Perhaps it came out of a feeling of depression after yesterday’s sad events with the Columbia, or perhaps for other reasons, but in any event I’ve gone ahead and switched my whole “Internet Experience” suite to Mozilla. By this I mean that I’ve set up Mozilla to be not only my default web browser (which it has been for quite some time now), but also my default email client and newsreader, too. That’s right, no more Outlook for me!
I have to admit, I’ve tried to do this before and failed. The siren song which Outlook sings is a powerful one, but I think that maybe this time I can quit. After all, just like that first cigarette, Outlook isn’t all that appealing when you start using it; it’s quite confusing (typical Microsoft product) and not particularly user-friendly (also typical of Microsoft). But, and not to stretch the smoking metaphor too far, once you get “addicted”, you find you’re really quite lost without your daily dose of Outlook. After all, it’s got email, calendar, contacts, the whole works all in one convenient location, and each part sort of even works with the other parts, once you learn to “Think & Speak Outlook”.
Unfortunately, and again, just like with smoking, Outlook brings with it some nasty, nasty side effects. Primary amongst these is a disturbing tendency to propogate email viruses, a trait which it shares with it’s smaller and slightly less-bloated (for now) sibling, Outlook Express. My sister recently had her laptop afflicted with just such a virus–nasty business, really, required a complete format & reinstall (again, and not to labor the point, but typical for a Microsoft product).
I’ve never had any trouble with email viruses, because I don’t open emails of any kind from strangers–they’re deleted upon receipt. But then there are always those uber-malicious emails that can (or at least, theoretically could) execute code merely through their being viewed in the “Preview” pane…at least, that’s the fear.
Now, to be honest, the latest iteration of Outlook (2002) is quite safe, and a marked upgrade from previous verions in terms of virus security. Which, by rights, it ought to be, considering how many people have been negatively affected by Outlook’s many vulnerabilities in the past. But just because the cigarette is marketed as “lower in tar” or “additive free” doesn’t mean that you’ve quit smoking and are now in the clear! Ha!
To be honest, my favorite email applicatoin of all time has got to be the old Netscape 4.x client, which I very unhappily gave up under duress from a former employer, so that I could more “synergistically” integrate my emailings with the rest of the employees. And, as you might imagine, once I was exposed to good ol’ Outlook for sufficient time, I forgot my “first love” and didn’t look back.
Until now, anyways! Mozilla’s email client faithfully reproduces the look, feel and general functionality of the old Netscape 4.x client, but it apparently works better. And I can finally once again read newsgroups from the same client that I use to read email! Yippee!
As for the contact (Address Book), I’ve got to read up on what sorts of data juggling gymnastics will be necessary to move my Outlook contacts over to Mozilla (it will undoubtably be a major pain in the ass), and then try to figure out the exciting and ever-so-Beta Calendar app that I’ve downloaded from Mozilla.org. Should be quite thrilling, indeed!
Onward and upward! Or sideways! Perhaps even back! It’s Open Source Fever, and it will not be denied!