If you're seeking an integrated email, PIM and calendar, you probably would think of Microsoft Outlook. Indeed, it's popular as you can schedule meetings, invite other users, track their interest through email and even use it to manage your contacts. It's a a PIM and email client in one application and works effectively. However, it's also rather expensive and can be very slow in downloading and processing your email. There are free alternatives.

Mozilla Lightning 0.5 for Thunderbird is a calendar add-on that enables you to track your meetings, diary and other events, through Thunderbird. It doesn't quite give you the complete PIM functionality of Outlook, but you can use the calendar to track events and then synchronise this with your mobile phone and other portable device.

28 Jun 2007