Quite frankly, I'm bored of using Microsoft Outlook and spend quite a bit of time seeking an alternative. Now I've finally realised why so many business users keep buying and using Microsoft Office - Outlook is such a good business collaboration tool that it stops you seeking a legitimate alternative. The biggest problem we have with Outlook is that it's so darned slow. Start your computer, open Outlook and it can take 15 minutes to download and process 200 emails. Of course, that's factoring in using a security tool to check incoming email for possible hazards.

However, there's a brand new email client available and it's looking good. Postbox 1.0b7 is the first public preview of the new technology. We've tried both the Mac and Windows edition and our opinion is that the Mac version is superb, and already a replacement for Apple Mail, where the Windows version is decent, but we've had to go back to Outlook. The Mac version is designed brilliantly and enables you to run quick searches, with the minimum of fuss. The Windows version looks like it's been converted from the Mac version and needs a bit more work.

Postbox for Windows link.

11 Feb 2009