# A better email program? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 18, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432 "2010-01-18T16:21:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/1 "2010-01-18T16:21:19Z")
Microsoft Outlook 2007 gave me the ol’ “not responding” bullshit again this morning. And today I got an error message that said: “external component has thrown an exception.” WTF does\* that \*mean? Is that like an engine throwing a rod? A kid throwing a fit? An fighter throwing a fight? There must be a better mousetrap out there, one that will allow me to migrate my address book to it and that is compatible with Windows 7. Any ideas appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/2 "2010-01-18T16:23:49Z")
Many people swear by Thunderbird. [http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/all.html](http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/all.html) ---
**Author:** ![breaking-reality](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a8b319/32.png) [@breaking-reality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breaking-reality)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/3 "2010-01-18T16:45:35Z")
I second the Thunderbird comment, though it depends on your email client. Setting it up can be a pain, especially if you use hotmail (or at least, I’ve run into problems). Other than that it’s been great. However, you might want to troubleshoot, or uninstall/reinstall Outlook since you already have it. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/4 "2010-01-18T18:41:54Z")
> [@breaking-reality](#): > > I second the Thunderbird comment, though it depends on your email client. Setting it up can be a pain, especially if you use hotmail (or at least, I’ve run into problems). Other than that it’s been great. > > However, you might want to troubleshoot, or uninstall/reinstall Outlook since you already have it. I’m running the diagnostics now to see if there is an obvious problem. I finally got Windows 7 upgrade to install yesterday, but the Outlook problems have been going on for some time now, so I don’t think it’s related to that. Our email client through our old internet/email/phone service and seems to work pretty well. Will Thunderbird import the address book? Diagnostics says there are no problems. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/5 "2010-01-18T19:36:38Z")
You want [PopPeeper](http://www.poppeeper.com/), a lightweight program that is free and does pretty much anything. I’ve not used anything for the last 6 years ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/6 "2010-01-18T20:31:49Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > You want [PopPeeper](http://www.poppeeper.com/), a lightweight program that is free and does pretty much anything. I’ve not used anything for the last 6 years Is that a desktop application or an online application? ---
**Author:** ![Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/7 "2010-01-18T20:37:28Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Will Thunderbird import the address book? Yep. If I recall correctly it asks if you want to when you first start it up, but failing that there are options to. Never had any problems with Mozilla Thunderbird. ---
**Author:** ![breaking-reality](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a8b319/32.png) [@breaking-reality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breaking-reality)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/8 "2010-01-18T20:40:37Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Will Thunderbird import the address book? From Outlook? I’ve never had to import an address book from Outlook, but it looks as if it’d be pretty easy. This page might be helpful to you: [http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla\_messaging/topics/how\_do\_i\_import\_my\_address\_books?utm\_medium=widget&utm\_source=widget\_mozilla\_messaging](http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/topics/how_do_i_import_my_address_books?utm_medium=widget&utm_source=widget_mozilla_messaging) ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/9 "2010-01-20T17:33:59Z")
[Seamonkey](http://www.seamonkey-project.org/). It’s what Netscape grew up to be. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/10 "2010-01-20T19:15:39Z")
Since you’re at a juncture I might suggest a move onto another road, [GMail](https://mail.google.com). GMail has excellent spam filtering, [can import your Outlook contacts](http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=14024), and best of all can be accessed from any computer/device anywhere that has web access. If you’d still like a local copy of your mail for archival reasons, you can still download your Gmail mail into a local POP3 client. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/11 "2010-01-20T20:18:14Z")
I use Pocomail, and am happy with it. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/12 "2010-01-20T22:18:31Z")
Another vote for Thunderbird. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/13 "2010-01-20T23:49:54Z")
I still use Eudora and remain entirely happy with it. Email stored in plain text format, very fast searching, no performance problems keeping every piece of email you’ve ever received in your life, more power features than you’ll ever need. Even if they are often controlled thru the [most arcane processes imaginable](http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/mac/download/X-Eudora-Settings.txt) Obsolete and unsupported, but so what? ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/14 "2010-01-21T02:46:43Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I use Pocomail, and am happy with it. Same here. Hated Outlook Express, hated Eudora, didn’t care for Thunderbird. I’ve been quite happy with PocoMail for the last seven or eight years. It isn’t perfect, but has proven itself to be FAR better than any others I’ve tried. My wife retired from her corporate career five years ago, and she still misses LotusNotes. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-better-email-program/525432/15 "2010-01-21T04:20:23Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Since you’re at a juncture I might suggest a move onto another road, [GMail](https://mail.google.com). GMail has excellent spam filtering, [can import your Outlook contacts](http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=14024), and best of all can be accessed from any computer/device anywhere that has web access. > > If you’d still like a local copy of your mail for archival reasons, you can still download your Gmail mail into a local POP3 client. Yes, but Gmail scans all your messages for information they can use to feed ads to you. Who knows how they’re going to use all this data they’re collecting that’s associated with your e-mail address? Or who they’ll sell it to, or turn it over to, with or without a warrant or subpoena? [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dg7pVFVqMMg/hqdefault.jpg "Google GMail Privacy") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg7pVFVqMMg) [http://www.google-watch.org/gmail.html](http://www.google-watch.org/gmail.html) [http://www.templetons.com/brad/gmail.html](http://www.templetons.com/brad/gmail.html)