Alternatives to MS Outlook

The Corinthian

This forum seems like the right place to ask this, as it's the sort of software that an entrepreneur needs, so...

I've been weaning myself off MS Office over the last few years. OpenOffice has eliminated the need for the bulk of the Office suite, but Outlook remains an issue.

There's no shortage of email clients out there, but it's more the organizer functionality (calendar, to-do, contacts) that I'm finding difficult to find elsewhere. Being able to back things up locally / to local storage and sync with an Android device directly (not via Google) is also important.

I've tried a few options to date, such as Evolution, but none have really satisfied me.

Would anyone have recommendations for Outlook alternatives?

Chief87

I find thunderbird good and it's free .

solomafioso

Chief87 wrote: »

I find thunderbird good and it's free .

+1 for Thunderbird (it's Mozilla's version of Outlook). Also it supports addons (like Firefox), so you can install adblock plus. Lightning is a great calendar extension.

Also, you can download Windows Live Essentials which contains Live Mail, if you wanted to use that? I mean, just look how happy that guy is getting email! :pac:

_Brian

Chief87 wrote: »

I find thunderbird good and it's free .

+1

terryhobdell

Thunderbird is perfectly OK few little tweaks but no big problem

janeparker

Thunderbird is a free email client which can be used in customize way. However, data file format is quite different from MS Outlook. MS Outlook supports PST file format while Thunderbird supports MBOX file format.

For successful migration from MS Outlook to Thunderbird, you must have a need to convert PST files into MBOX files. After that, you can import these converted files into Thunderbird. This approach helps outlook users to resume their work in Thunderbird with existing old emails.

beauf

Can you convert from MBOX back to PST. Is the conversion both ways fairly reliable?

The Corinthian

Many thanks to all that replied.

I've used Thunderbird before, and it's not a bad email client. Lightning is new to me, so I decided to install it at home and play around a bit.

Firstly, Lightning, as a calendar/organizer application it appears to tick the same boxes as Outlook, especially once you take the time to tweak it with a few add-ons, like Calendar Tweaks. There's still a few minor things missing (or that I've not yet found a workaround for), such as the ability to navigate through weeks/months using the arrow keys, but otherwise it's 95% there.

With regards to synchronizing with an Android device, without going through Google, MyPhoneExplorer will support this. I've been using this to synchronize with Outlook for years now, and can testify to it's overall stability.

It should be noted that while Thunderbird has numerous memo plug-ins that can replace Outlook's offering (e.g. Notepad (QuickFox), QuickNote), there's no synchronization solution with Android that I've found. For me, this isn't an issue as I've never used it with outlook, but others may have this requirement.

That leaves to remaining things: imports and backups. Email and contact import is straightforward enough, as you get the option to import from an existing local installation of Outlook. Importing from exported PST files or importing calendar items is more tricky, as janeparker suggested. I've come across a few applications and tutorials, but most use CSV as the export medium, which just screams lost data to me. If anyone has a better solution, I'm all ears.

Finally for backups there's no shortage of add-ons, however as future-proofing the backup format is important (no point in backing up your data into a format that won't be recognized by anyone in five years time), which one to use is something that will require more research. Again open to suggestions.

Overall, I have concluded also that Thunderbird-Lightning is probably the way to go.

beauf

Thanks for that. I wonder what people are using for mobile sync with Thunderbird and Lightning.

The Corinthian

beauf wrote: »

Thanks for that. I wonder what people are using for mobile sync with Thunderbird and Lightning.

As I said MyPhoneExplorer will support calendar and task sync between Thunderbird/Lightning and your PC.

The main gap in the puzzle appears to be import/export of emails, calendar items and tasks to common file types. I've not yet found a satisfactory solution, so I will hold off until I do. If anyone can suggest any, I'd be most appreciative.

Is there a way to run MAC mail on PC? Its a brilliant email client and probably worth looking into. When I migrated over to Apple it was the only mail application I found comparable to outlook.

EDIT: have been told today Apple got all those possibilities shut down last year

Ctrl Alt Del

Happy to hear that Open Office is becoming a valid alternative for Office Suite...i'm using them in primary schools for student PCs.

A proper ran business is using Microsoft Office 2007/2010/2013.Outlook is part of the suite,unless you use the Student Edition or...the blue edition .
I cant see the reasons why do not use Office on my business PCs or advise my clients to avoid purchasing Office 2013 and to go for Open Office...really !

Regards

Grudaire

FYI, Libre Office is generally considered the better version of Open Office, more upto date and better compatibility of document formats.

(It's a split off from the same project for several reasons. But it's basically the same thing for an end user, and if you're thinking of installing either you'd be best with LibreOffice.)