Thunderbird vs Outlook 2003

Although I’m not a heavy email user, I have my little preferences and quirks that I find it’s important to me in an email client. One of which being obviously, calender. I may not be super busy but I tend to forget things, and I do have calls and meetings to go to, as well as notes of events happening.

Having used Outlook 2003 in Fairfax and Thunderbird in Oracle (simply because they stupidly still use Outlook 2000!) I have to concede that Outlook 2003 simply trumps the lot.

Though I HAVE to add that Outlook 2007 wins totally, in terms of function. But in terms of love, my heart is still with Outlook2003. Somehow.

Why? Main 2 reasons.

1) Vertical 3-panel display
I can go on about the benefits of 3 vertical panel display. It’ s so much easier to read and you get more information at a glance. The older versions of Outlook, as well as Thunderbird, still uses the split-panel for the email list & preview. It cuts off alot of the rows of emails in the folders and make manual eyeball searches much much slower. Also, reading long emails on half-screen is seriously a pain in the ass. Especially for someone like me who hates to spend too much time on one thing. Having to scroll and scroll AND scroll just to finish reading the email, when the same email can be read almost immediately in Outlook2003, pisses me to no end.

2) Calender
One thing that is sorely missing in the Thunderbird application is calender integration. Rather, I should say good calender integration. I want to be able to add a meeting/conference call/web conference/event etc to my calender immediately without any hiccups. I want to be able to send a meeting note to everyone, internal & external and be able to save it to my calender immediately and without fuss. And Thunderbird doesn’t seem to be doing and upgrades to their calender services. Or lack of it.

Therefore, even though I’m very unwilling, I’m switching back to Outlook 2000.

I still can’t believe Oracle uses Office 2000. Time to do an UPGRADE! Gee! It’s Office 2007 already people! Keep up with the times! Don’t be stingy! Give Office 2003 to everyone, and not just selected personnel. Pooey. Biasness against contractors.

I get so jealous whenever I see the girl next to me using Office 2003. Pooey!

Office 2000 is disgusting!