Well said rstuart.

I've been a linux user/developer for about 8 years now and don't miss the corporate stuff one bit :)

In fact, I get frustrated everytime I have to work with the stuff, so restrictive.

Anyway, Yabby asked for a mail program similar to Outhouse. Thunderbird would serve him well and is free as in beer and free as in freedom to boot :)

PS Arjay:

It's about time you got with the group and ditched the N.W.O. stuff. I'm surprised you would gladly give your money to the enemy :P~

Far too early for me to even consider windows 7.
Micro softs last effort made me gun shy.
Still running xp with service pak 2 and outlook.
Updating daily and so far so good.

rsuart some programs are free,however with the computers you will note that you get very few programs.rstuart your attempt at derision says more about you than myself.

Raw mustard I made no mention of NWO.I will be vindicated in the future on my stance of the corporate dominance of our lives being wrong, but expect no acknowledgment or thanks from people who are too smug and secure in their beaker frog existance as the temp slowly rises.

Yabby has been loitering around in a dam somewhere, you are supposed to know what you are letting yourself in for.
Keeping up with the latest at any cost is not the way to go.
You should have asked an eight year old for some advice before blundering yourself around.

I use Mac where nothing's free but the upside is that it always works.

Arjay: "with the computers you will note that you get very few programs"

Not good at taking advice, are you? You didn't google copyleft. And as a consequence you still don't get it.

There are free versions of just about any software you might need. It is not Microsoft Software. It might not work the way you are familiar with. But is exists. It is completely free. And it is completely legal. You just download it off the internet, or from a DVD on a magazine cover.

In the same vein there are user groups out there that will help you find the right software, install it, and use it. They will even find cheap hardware for you to run it on. They do this for free. They are live both in Internet forums, and in real life meetings. They do this primarily because they get their kicks out of helping others.

You might notice the only two people here who offered Yabby concrete advice, RawMustard and myself, happen to run this and use software. And I'd wager RawMustard participates in self free software community just as I do.

If you are interested in any of this I can give you sites that have this software, addresses of forums where you can ask questions, and if you live in a capital city the names of groups that meet regularly and will help you with this stuff.

But whether you choose, don't continue to whinge about being caught up in some global Corportatocracy conspiracy. Microsoft makes good software and is opting to pay for it is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. But nonetheless your choice to stay with the Corportatocracy is just that - a choice, made by you.