Excellent FREE alternative to OUTLOOK

Hi there

For a good FREE alternative to Outllok which looks pretty much the same as Outlook (unlike a load of other email clients) try this :

If you can manage Linux either as a VM or as a Host then I'd suggest you use KMAIL - this has improved so much these days that I'm happy enough to use it daily even at work. Install the KDE desktop on your Linux Distro -- KDE 4 has improved very much these days - the KDE team seem to have found a winning formula.

KMAIL works with different servers (you can have multiple accounts on different servers), integrates with EXCHANGE/GMAIL / Other email servers as well as IMAP and it's great having a SINGLE email system for Work and home - especially if you are on 3 or 4 different client sites all with their own different email servers.

KMAIL is integrated into KDE - you don't have to install it separately and IMO is far superior to Thunderbird or Evolution - the two other email clients often used.

The only very slight snag is that to configure the first account is a bit fiddly - then configuring other ones are simple. (As always with Linux - documentation could be better !! - but I'm sure if anybody here is or has been a developer on any system you know what a chore documentation is and how even when it is done it gets out of date alnmost before the documentation is finished !!).

I'm gradually trying to wean myself of Ms Office -- I've found some aceptable clones for EXCEL, Powerpoint and Word (WPS / KINGSOFT office), but until now finding a decent OUTLOOK alternative was a problem - especially for managing multiple email accounts on different servers.

I refuse to go the Office 365 subscription route and don't like the way everything is inching towards "Cloud" servers -- probably trying to get us in future to PAY for everything.

Cheers
jimbo