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Gelfin

macrumors 68020
Sep 18, 2001
2,165
5
Denver, CO
I noticed they had standalone Entourage packages at CompUSA too. I like Entourage, but in the past several months I've actually switched from Entourage to Mail/iCal/Address Book. I wouldn't have expected to switch from the commercial app to the ones that come free with the OS, but Entourage comes with a performance hit. I don't need Address Book and iCal loaded every time I want to be able to check my mail, and besides, I think Entourage uses more CPU time than having all three Apple apps open anyway. The Apple apps are integrated with each other sufficiently well that they can collectively replace Entourage for me, and as a bonus I like iCal's calendaring interface better. Besides, Entourage seemed to crash or cause problems a lot more than I was happy with.
 
I switched from Outlook Express to Entourage in my OS 9 days. The primal reason back then was to use it instead of Palm Desktop and sync it to my Palm. So I could do everything on Entourage, from emailing to scheduling to to-dos to contacts.

I've been on Entourage as long as it's on the market and don't know much about anything else. But I have nothing much to complain with it.

It's bascally a beefed up Outlook Express. Some of the deferences I remember now is the full-text search speed and auto-complete of mail addresses when you compose new mails. I think there are many other minor improvements. Oh and of course the addition of the PIM stuff.

I've used Mail.app for like 30 min when I got a copy of OS10.1. And decided it was too simple. I'm not sure how good Mail app is now, but if you want to go for the Mail/AddressBook/iCal/iSync combination, I guess it's better to stay with Mail.
 

ninkasi

macrumors newbie
Sep 28, 2002
4
0
I've found that Mail corrupts too many attachments, which made it a veto for me. Entourage works well in this regard. Otherwise, I'd use Mail.

Another reason is Palm syncing, but the Entourage X <--> Palm conduit is less than perfect.
 

theranch

macrumors 6502
Jan 3, 2002
300
0
Atlantic City area
good point...

Originally posted by Gelfin
I wouldn't have expected to switch from the commercial app to the ones that come free with the OS, but Entourage comes with a performance hit. I don't need Address Book and iCal loaded every time I want to be able to check my mail, and besides, I think Entourage uses more CPU time than having all three Apple apps open anyway. Besides, Entourage seemed to crash or cause problems a lot more than I was happy with.
Good point on the performace but I have yet to see any ill affects. I prefer Entourage over three apps. I would love to switch from MS Office X apps to Appleworks, Mail, iCal and Addressbook but I'm not totally convinced or persuaded yet. Probably soon though...
 

pimentoLoaf

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Dec 30, 2001
1,987
21
The SimCity Deli
I tossed-off iCal from my iBook, what with all the bugs it had. Supposedly fixed in the current upgrade, I prefer the Palm 4 desktop, even though it doesn't work with my antique Visor Deluxe.
 

superfunkomatic

macrumors regular
Jan 6, 2003
230
0
calgary, ab canada
simple is sometimes better

when i started with the 10.0 version of the OS mail seemed pretty simple, too simple in fact. so i kept on my merry way with the latest and greatest M$ product. then i gave Mail a whirl, and man i couldn't believe such a simple program was soooo... easy to use. it has all the functions (now) of entourage, it integrates with other programs like iCal and Address Book flawlessly. From an admin standpoint it's easier to backup without errors from Retrospect or by using the Backup utility on a .Mac account.

Entourage and Outlook always feel clunky, like there's an extra step for each function. and like most M$ products they are counterintuitive - like setting up the accounts in Entourage.

for a fledgling mail client, mail is already well on it's way to being a very useful productivity tool.
 
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