mail vs Entourage

[webgodjj]

Hi,

I have a couple of performance questions. I currently use Entourage running in clasic mode for my email program (don't have the cash to upgrade to the osX version yet).

I am thinking about switching to apple's Mail program. Here is where I need info.

1. Performance and memory:

Old Way:
Entourage and Classic

New Way
Mail, ical, Addressbook.

Which way would lead to better performance? It seems that I need to run three programs to do the same thing that Entourage does?

2. iCal

My friend uses entourage for osx. However when sending apointments between Mail and Entourage, things don't alway go smooth. I think there are two different technologies here? icard vs. vcard? Is there a work around?

[ex2bot]

Mail doesn't do a very good job displaying HTML messages. Pretty poor, actually. They're readable but ugly and messed up.

That's why I switched to Entourage X (OS X version). I really like its HTML rendering and calendar, interface, etc.

Unfortunately, it is sluggish on my 800 mHz G4. Still, I haven't switched back to Mail.

I wasn't impressed with iCal. Entourage's interface is much better. iCal required too much work.

Doug

[cellfish]

I'm using Entourage X and I find it way faster than Mail.app on my G3 600. It always displays HTML properly, it is customizable and it allows you to encode messages in your choice of encoding, unlike Mail that automatically uses AppleDouble (and confuses anyone you send attachments to).

I used to use Mail because of its efficient spam control, but even that has become useless since spammers are finding ways around it (I find I can customize Entourage's mail filters to catch spam way more efficiently than Mail anyway).

Andre

[michaelsanford]

I swtiched, twice.

First I was using Mail on Puma, and I got so pissed off with it hanging up, not handling my mail properly, etc that I moved to Entourage.

However, once I got Jag, I moved right back to Mail. The primary reason: consolidated inbox. I have 5 IMAP/POP3 accounts that I monitor regularly, and in Entourage, you have to click each of the silly server trees individually to see all your mail, and I really hate that.

Also, Mail works much much faster for me than Entourage.

I especially like having a consolidated Address Book that works in Mail, and calendars with iCal that all synch to my iPod without me having to do anything like export Entourage vCards...

[evildan]

However, once I got Jag, I moved right back to Mail. The primary reason: consolidated inbox. I have 5 IMAP/POP3 accounts that I monitor regularly, and in Entourage, you have to click each of the silly server trees individually to see all your mail, and I really hate that.

I think you have that backwards, you can view all mail from all accounts in Entourage. I know, I do it every day.

Entourage is really, in my opinion, a more fully developed program then Mail.app.

To be fair, Mail.app has not been around as long as Entourage has been. Although most of the features I like in Mail.app are very similar to Entourage.

For me jumping between Address Book, iCal and Mail is just to annoying. Most of the time I'm getting people's email addresses and meeting times, I'm in my email program. So to have to launch another app is a time-waster for me.

I've resorted to leaving iCal open, ignoring Address Book altogether and using Entourage for my main mail program. I know it's backwards, but out of the three (iCal, Mail.app, Address Book) iCal is the only one worth using. Again IMHO.

Before my company purchased OfficeX, I was using Mail.app all the time. I was pretty happy with it, except for those icons, they were just too large. In an update the program offered the ability to shrink the icons, but they were still annoying. They didn't offer a consistent feel to and I hated seeing them. More drawing then an actual button. I don't know the entire "mail room" theme didn't fly with me (no pun intended).

[michaelsanford]

Hmm perhaps it was a feature in Entourage somewhere I couldn't find, but I couldn't get my mix of POP3 and IMAP boxes to all display in a single location.

You're absolutely right that Entourage is a more developped mail application, but I still prefer the simplicity of Mail.

[Urbansory]

Entourage is the best to me. I have scripts set up to do all tyoes of things. The mail filter I made catches about 90% of what the built in filter doesn't catch. Plus you can limit all your mail, mine is set to 4k max, to keep those unwanted pages from loading unless i allow them to. Blah, blah, I can go on and on

[evildan]

I also like the "Define" feature that Entourage has built into it's dictionary. Very handy to be able to click on any word and find its definition. Something I can't live without now that I've come to expect it from my email program.

michaelsanford, my bad missed the IMAP, POP combo part of your post. I currently only use POP, but doesn't Mail.app have the same thing? "On my Machine" and "In Box"?

I seem to remember not liking the fact that I had to click on carrots to see all mail in Mail.app.

Could be wrong, it's been a few months since I've even launched Mail.app.

One bonus to Mail.app is the iCal tie in. Seems that iCal doesn't like to use any other email application when sending email notification reminders. Tricky Apple, very, very, tricky.