PC WORLD - Microsoft Office 365

Gers

All of the components of MS Office (including Outlook) are available free on charge to use online.

https://products.office.com/en-gb/free-office-online-for-the-web

JustAnotherSaver

DoaM wrote: »

Like Thunderbird for example.

I saw people at work using Outlook. Looks like it's changed quite a bit since i last paid attention to it, which was probably back in the Windows 98 days.


Haven't experienced the latest offerings myself yet but from the look of it, why would anyone use Thunderbird (IF they have Outlook as part of their Office package that is. I'm not asking if they don't have Office/Outlook anyway, i'm asking if they do already have it - why would they use Thunderbird? What does it offer over Outlook)?


On the flipside, why would someone use Outlook over Thunderbird?


I've had a look and Thunderbird appears pretty similar to WLM which is what i use. When i move to W10 that may change.

Neil_Jones

In a work environment what you have to use is often dictated by those with the purse strings. In a domestic environment you can do what you like.

Thunderbird is free software. Outook isn't, but its the best known example of what it does, like Word is the best known example of a Word Processor, even though there are countless others out there.

JustAnotherSaver

Sorry, my question mustn’t have been that clear.

I’m not talking about work environments, although I did mention that’s where I saw Outlook which then promoted me to ask the question.

I’m not talking about situations where you have no choice.

I’m talking about you have office installed on your home PC, with Outlook as an option. So now Outlook is already there, it’s paid for so it’s costing you no extra. You have the choice between this and Thunderbird (and others, just that I’m specifically asking about those two for this question).

Why would you actively choose one of those over the other?

wongataa

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Haven't experienced the latest offerings myself yet but from the look of it, why would anyone use Thunderbird (IF they have Outlook as part of their Office package that is. I'm not asking if they don't have Office/Outlook anyway, i'm asking if they do already have it - why would they use Thunderbird? What does it offer over Outlook)?


On the flipside, why would someone use Outlook over Thunderbird?.

If you use both pieces of software you would probably find that you prefer one of them over the other. This would you to use one of them instead of the other one.


Outlook is really designed for work environments. It has lots of features that home users are unlikely to need to use. Thunderbird does pretty much only email. If you just want an email client you may well find that Thunderbird is simpler and easier to use as it doesn't have al those features you have no interest in getting in the way for example.


Of course if there is a feature you really like in Outlook that doesn't appear in other email software you would prefer using Outlook instead.