The Emperor Has No Clothes

Damn chris you really got it out for Outlook 2003. Personally I prefer it due to search folders and the cosmetic look of it all. I can't really tell the speed difference, but you want to really make my day? Get the thunderbird team to make their PIM competition … i want newsgator, spambayes, a good address book manager (such as plaxo) and calendar.

The adage: “something that does everything does nothing well” applies with Outlook and always has. I've always hated the long startup and shutdown times of the application. I'd prefer to have Palm Desktop for PIM and Opera for mail and browser.

still testing it, myself..
the built-in junk mail features and security (like disabling web-bugs) seem to be way cool.
it STILL doesn't allow multiple mail delivery locations for pop3 accounts, though (arg!!)

Chris: well, for me, it's far easier to deal with the email I have in Outlook 2003 than in previous versions. I think you never found search folders. Or, the fact that in older versions of Outlook when the PST file got bigger than 2GB, the darn thing would corrupt your data.

Robert Scoble, you are nothing but a Microsoft apologist. If you weren't given handouts by the beast then maybe you wouldn't be so 'influenced'. Is “it's far easier” the only thing Microsoft is concerned with these days? It's far easier for people if Win Media Player is bundled with Windows, regardless of how anti-competitive it is. Obviously it's anti-competitive otherwise Microsoft wouldn't complain when asked to remove it (after all, people can easily download it – as Microsoft stated concerning RealPlayer). And what's this? I just heard that IE has a load more flaws. I expect that Microsoft will have to sell Office 2004 next year to fix the flaws in 2003 and help maintain the revenue of its failing business model.

… And this coming from such a well-known authority on technology as Mr. GibletHead.
Look, I'm the first to rail on MS for things when I feel it's needed, and my mood coincides with good rant-worthy material, but taking the OBVIOUS legitimate improvements that Robert listed and somehow warping them into a personal attack, while hiding behind your cowardess shows just how biased YOU are. Perhaps GibletHead actually is your real name… and if not, please seek to have it legally effected, seeing as how it applies so well.
-Furo

That's why I can't wait for Longhorn. Then everything will be crap.

Maybe you should change your site name from Lockergnome to something like….oh I don't know…..”I hate Outlook 2003 and I'm going to write about it incessantly for the next two years until all my readers have gone in to a coma.”
boring….

Furo, it doesn't matter whether or not I am the oracle of all things tech. In fact, both who I am or the level of my inteligence are equally unimportant. Surely it's the truth within my comments that counts? Mr. Scoble constantly sweetens up the poor quality of Microsoft products, and I grow tired of it. If he has a right to post his opinions here, surely I do too? Concerning Mr. Scobles LEGITIMATE improvements, what use is a nice clean Ferrari without wheels? Does it then really matter if it has good suspension? Calling me biased? Does this make my points any less valid? Robert decides to ignore some problems and sell the plusses of Outlook 2003, I then decide to reveal some of the negative points of Microsoft. Biased? I'd say that Robert is more than biased. Coward? No, just not an arrogant type that has to put my entire life, Microsoft shrine and weasel collection on display.

Another thrilling pirillo bore…..

Yes, I'm more than biased. I work for Microsoft.

Well, if we, as the general public, had a 30 day free shareware of this to judge for ourselves the validity of the aformentioned claims, we might be inclined to judge it as Pirrilo gospel or not.
As a nonfreebee user of this, I would like to say to each his/her own. Some people use this for their jobs, not as their jobs. Works for me:)

We do give out free trial versions of Office 2003. Sign up here: http://www.microsoft.com/office/editions/prodinfo/trial.mspx

Yeah, GibletHead did sort of miss the fact that Robert works for Microsoft. As if we'd see bashing coming from Robert, right? Duh. That's what I'm for! :) I don't take marketing text as gospel, and I know Robert doesn't seriously believe that I would or should. I know that because I've been reading his stuff long enough to know that while he's towing a Microsoft barge behind him, he has his own opinions as well. As for the truth in someone's comments, there's no basis iin fact with anything Giblethead has to say… only opinion. Where there's an opinion alone, credibility becomes the measuring stick. Anonymous comments carry zero credibility. -Furo

I don't know why you assume that I don't know where Robert works. I've known for quite some time that he's a Microsoft employee. I quote (myself): “If you weren't given handouts by the beast then maybe you wouldn't be so 'influenced'.” – referring to the glamorous work-style Microsoft employees are coaxed with. As for anonymous comments carrying zero credibility: “2+2=4″ – whether I'm anonymous or not doesn't change fact. “Furo probably doesn't have a tan” – whether I'm anonymous doens't make my opinions any less relevant. As far as the pattern shows, the only people who stereotype all anonymous posters with lack of credibility are those who are frustrated that they can't get any satisfaction by attacking them. Anonymous posters appear to many as free spirits that cannot be harmed, and this seems to really annoy know-it-alls and people that have a lot of stored up agression/frustration.

Sorry Chris. I've got to go with Scoble (and others) on this one. I've worked my way from Outlook 97 to the current 2003 version and honestly feel the app has gotten better with each release. On my system I don't see any significant difference in performance and in fact am experiencing better work-and-play with my company's IMAP server than in previous versions.
I've got very large .pst files for three different e-mail accounts as well as a huge number of tasks, journal items, etc. All seem to work just as well in 2K3 as in XP or 2000 without the annoying IMAP coma that 2K had going that forced me to unsynchronize all of my folders except the InBoxes.
BTW, I *paid* for Outlook 2003 (and OneNote which is also a very cool app for a 1.0 release) and have them running all day, every day.

I think its faster when it comes to organization, but then again I'm a simple Outlook 2003 user.

I'm not going to say that Outlook 2003 is groundbreaking. I don't even know that I would upgrade my company from 2000 to 2003 if I had to actually cough up the money out of my budget, but I will say this. I have been running Outlook 2003 at work since the earliest I could get the public beta. I am still running that Beta because the new PCs are not ready yet, so no new software.
I run my PC for usually around a week straight with no reboot and having outlook running at all times. Occasionally it will tell me Exchange is not responding when i click on Outlook's System Tray Icon (Outstanding Feature), but other than that it runs very well. I love the look and the reading pane, I almost never see junk mail in my inbox, and I have had few problems setting up rules. I would say that even if this was final code I was using I would be satisfied. Maybe I do need to go back to 2000 and see how fast it really is though.

I've been using Outlook 2003 since it was released a few months ago, and I wouldn't be able to go back to a previous version. The search folders feature alone is worth the price of admission. It's so much nicer to use follow up flags instead of leaving messages marked as unread. Now I know exactly what needs to be done for a certain message, instead of having to open the message, re-read it, and remember what I was thinking at the time when I left the message as unread.
I will agree with Chris, to some extent at least, when it comes to the speed of Outlook 2k3. When I switch folders, it takes it a few seconds to load the new message in hte preview pane. I previously attributed this to a large PST file, but evidentally this is just how Outlook 2k3 works.
Although it is a bit slower, by no means am I going to ditch it and go back to Outlook 2000. I've gotten used to search folders, and that's a feature that I can't live without.

I think O2k3 is pretty good the search folders are a great new addition as previously mentioned. However, what bothers me is the how the tray icon behaves. Most apps that put a icon in the tray give the option to shutdown when you right click the icon, O2k3 does not. Also, I'm not positive about this one since I don't have O2k3 if front of me right now, but on a double click of the tray icon outlook does not open. It's tray icon pop menu appears. I don't know if there's any design standards for tray icon behaviors but at least they could have included a shutdown option.

Even in Beta 1 version outlook 2003 rocked. Granted it had issues but it was a beta product. Outlook 2003 has been an RTM product for less than a month remember…
As for Mr Gibletheads other comments, there are indeed perks of working at MSFT but I dont know of many other companies where project teams would work days on end on achieving a project deliverable to the detriment of their social lives.
Do you genuinely think that all the people who work for Microsoft only work there because its 'cool'?
Of course not – thats just an added bonus ;)
The people who work at Microsoft work there because they are the best at what they do. plain and simple.
Welcome to Microsoft :)

I dunno Chris, Outlook 2003 works great on my machine. No complaints here.

EMAIL: krokodilgena1@yahoo.com
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DATE: 12/10/2003 04:01:11 PM
The fear of death is the beginning of slavery.