* Gary VanderMolen:
At this point Microsoft is not even soliciting beta testers to submit
bug reports for Windows Mail, so whatever fixes Microsoft has in store
for Windows Mail are a long way off.
I personally find it very disheartening because I have lived with Outlook
Express for so long that it seemed like an old friend. We all hoped that
WM was going to be a modernized OE, but so far it has not lived up to
its promise. Microsoft is not being forthcoming with respect to what its
future plans for WM are.
If neither WM or WLM receive significant attention from Microsoft
within the next few months, I will probably migrate to Outlook 2007,
since it is already on my computer.
While I find it obnoxious when someone says "I told you so",
I'm going to say it- I've been harping on this for a year... since
the beta days. That doesn't help, but Microsoft has been fully
aware of WM's sorry performance for a long time.
I posted here and sent feedback to Microsoft on numerous occasions.
Back then, I thought Microsoft would have to be real dumb to release
Windows Mail in such a sorry state in a brand new OS.
See, there were two things most folks use every single day, something
that is common between most users of Windows- Outlook Express
and Internet Explorer. Even those who use Outlook for email still used
OE for newsgroups. And, as you said Gary, it was like an old friend.
I knew that a program with such a wide user base would garner many
complaints if it wasn't fixed, and it wasn't. People who upgrade to Vista
are left wondering WTF, where's my dependable Outlook Express?
"I upgrade to the latest and greatest and this is what I get?" The sheer amount
of users that this affects is enormous. Which is why I couldn't believe Microsoft
would actually release Vista with WM in its bug ridden state. It and IE are
the first two programs users will encounter and want to use right away.
The perception WM will give a new user about Vista, will not be very flattering.
And I stated that exact thing several times before Vista's release.
Of course, I wasn't the only one telling it like that.
Now, we have this mess of WM and WLM. While WLM is better, it is still
terrible for handling newsgroups. The confusion that has been created
because of this would be funny if it wasn't so serious.
Gary, if you have Office 2007 already, use it. Once you get used to
Outlook, it is the best email client out there. Period.
Perhaps, one could sneak a conspiracy theory into this mess and say
that- it's really Microsoft's intention to push users toward buying Office
so that they will have an email client that functions well. Of course, that
doesn't do a thing for newsgroups... but Thunderbird sure does.
Take care,
Michael