Thunderbird vs. Outlook

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was wondering if it’s a good idea to dump Outlook for Thunderbird and perhaps related software for calendar & contacts.

Outlook features I need:

  1. Lots of email sorted into lots of handy folders based upon who the sent me the email

  2. Easy email attachments

  3. Basic contacts capability

  4. Calendar with reminder function

  5. Blackberry synch

Is it ok to switch with these criteria?

What other software will I need? I hear Thunderbird has a calendar add on. What about Contacts?

Can I test it out just to see? If I don’t like it, is it hard to go back?

Thanks.

2

Another thought is to just use Thunderbird for email, Outlook for contacts, and either Thunderbird/Lightning or Outlook for Calendar.

Google Calendar didn’t work well.

3

What’s wrong with Google calendar? I’ve been thinking about using it?

4

I can’t recall exactly but I think it was messing with Outlook causing it to get hung up.

My Outlook is unstable and that’s why I’m thinking of going with Thunderbird. I’ve been reading that Thunderbird can be synced with Blackberry via Google.

5

Ahh, the age-old “booze vs. e-mail” issue…

6

I’ve been trying this myself (except with my new iphone). my only .02$ I can offer is you get to pick the lesser of two evils. Outlook - especially if you are using IMAP e-mail - is atrocious. I have been parallel running Google Apps, Thunderbird, Outlook and Windows Live. None are very satisfactory. Additionally, I’ve used Blackberry’s for 10+ years, so very comfortable with the look/feel of them and hope to have similar feature sets in my desktop apps, which other than outlook doesn’t seem to really have.

On the other hand, Thunderbird’s Calendar plug in (Lightening) is simply just not ready for prime time if you’re used to the functionality and interoperability of Outlook, and that’s ignoring the total lack of any real contact management.

I must say generally, I’m very disappointed in the total lack of viable competition for enterprise-level PIM management to Outlook.