Having become slightly (or perhaps more than slightly) obsessed with tiny new applications offered up on websites like MacUpdate and described on blogs like Hawkwings, over the past week, I’ve installed and uninstalled applications with names like Rapidowrite, Quicksilver, y-type, Grammarian Pro and AutoCorrect. My objective is to try to improve upon Microsoft Entourage, my email client of choice over the past few years.
Why do I want to switch from Entourage to another application for email, namely Mail.app (described with the three letter extension most generally by its fanbase because otherwise, it’s just “Mail”)? Because I’ve had a few database errors and some odd behavior from Entourage over the past few weeks that, while it’s been resolved, made me think that there may be better applications out there to read, manage, and send emails. I’m in the process of trying Apple’s Mail.app instead of Entourage. So far, I’m slightly impressed but I won’t make a final decision about whether convert my life over from Entourage to Mail and its sister programs, Address Book and iCal. I’ve read just about every single (often very helpful) post about the similarities and differences between Entourage and Mail, I’ve tested both out thoroughly (mostly late at night), and I’ve trouble-shooted both via online forums and blog lookups. There should be a ton of user feedback about both applications and, surprisingly, there’s not. One would think that, because email is so critical to the functions of most people’s computing lives, a more thorough discovery could be found. Instead, what I found were strong opinions about Apple and about Microsoft and many well-informed thoughts on their respective email applications.
Results revealed soon. And right now, I honestly don’t know which application I’m going to pick. It’s 50/50. Right down the line. That’s not you holding your breath, is it?