i use gmail. it's been a long time since i've had a local email client on my pc. they all seem so bloated.

gmail is great. In fact, I currently have my gmail acct set up to send to Outlook. Really don't like gmail's web interface and look.

getting a little tired of Outlook.

the only thing i miss about outlook is the contact mgt. and at times i REALLY miss that

that's why I was asking about Thunderbird. It is almost or is as robust as Outlook in that dept. Email/Contacts is about all I use Outlook 4

that Thunderbird statement should have been phrased as a question. Is it or not as robust...

i think it's not as robust. i don't use it, but the folks i know who do all have the same two plug-ins which increase the robustness

i'll have to ask what the second one is, but one of the add-ons is here

bit.ly/26b4cJ

you're a fountain of info. Thanks! Checking out the link.

I like the fact that you can make Thunderbird do just about anything.

it's the same way that Firefox is, out of the box it's not that robust, but we all add more features on to get it to do what we want it to

I use Lightning to add calendar and to-do list function and an iPod add-on to let me use mine as a one-way list of my appts. for the day

I hate Outlook. I use Entourage on my mac for work email, but still use Gmail on the web (actually, more on my iphone now) for personal

oh yeah, I also sync my Google calendar and Gmail with Thunderbird too

give Thunderbird a try. I last used it about 7 years ago. I liked it then until it somehow got corrupted. Lost a lot of email. Thanks all.