Gordon's WebLog

For many years I used Microsoft Outlook linked to an Exchange Server at work, and a Virtual Private Network connection from home.

However, when I ceased my full time employment I turned to Outlook Express, as a more light weight alternative to Outlook, but I must admit that I did miss Outlook's ToDo lists, calendar and notes.

For some eighteen months I was quite happy with this, untill I heard about Mozilla Thunderbird and Sunbird.

Not so well known as their bigger brother Firefox (which I have also used since its first release, both of these programs are now in constant use on my home PC.

Thunderbird is Mozilla's email client software, and you are able to import data from several other programs when you change to Thunderbird. It has all the normal email client functions, including downloading messages from remote mailboxes. One great advantage is that it can also be used as an RSS reader, much in the same way as some of the extensions used in Firefox. It really is great, and with the recent release of version 2 I am quite happy to use it for the foreseeable future.

Sunbird is Mozilla's calendar software. It includes tasks in addition to normal calendar events (which can be set to repeat in a number of ways), and again data can be imported from Outlook.

Both of these programs are thoroughly recommended, and complement Firefox.