The Violations of Outlook

Written by on Nov 13, 2009

I've never been a fan of Microsoft, except in my ignorant early years when I didn't understand just how much of a plague they are on the world as a whole. I remember being frustrated with how slow Netscape Navigator was in my early web development days and how much faster Internet Explorer was. I was excited to switch to IE. I also had my fair share of time with Microsoft Works, all on a Mac, of course.

Over the past several years, I've had the pleasure of trying to support my Windows-using customers using Microsoft's email programs... Outlook Express and its more feature-rich companion, Outlook. Both of these problems suffer from terrible user interface design. Every version is different. They don't adhere to industry standards, but rather try to define their own standards.

It baffles my mind when people actually say they like or prefer Outlook. That Outlook, or its Express counterpart, are the best they've ever used. I'll admit, there really aren't many better solutions on the market for Windows. To a few clients, I've tried to suggest Mozilla's Thunderbird client, but it hasn't stuck. Nothing I've ever used has the fit and finish of Apple's Mail program, but that has more to do with the Cocoa framework than the Mail program itself. Any application that uses Cocoa has a much better feel to it, for me at least.

Then there's those that have converted from Windows to a Mac, only to bring along the Windows equivalents to their shiny new Mac... Microsoft Office, Entourage (the Mac version of Outlook), MSN Messenger... all programs that degrade the Mac experience and are used with the belief that they're needed to get by in this world. So not true. I don't have a single Microsoft program installed on my computer. Haven't for years, and I get by just fine without any compromises in functionality or productivity. Several Mac users can say the same thing. The world doesn't need Microsoft. It's the other way around.

Okay, so I sidetracked from my original goal of this post; to talk about the violations of Outlook.

I'm a strong advocate of server-side email. I choose and recommend IMAP over POP3 any day. Why? So I can have my email everywhere. So I don't need to reload my email when I get a new computer. It just shows up. But when it comes to my customers that uses Outlook or Outlook Express, the joy of IMAP and server-side email is spoiled, which is a real shame. I blame Microsoft. They are competing with these open protocols with their own, Exchange and MAPI, so the truly industry standard protocols get less love.