How can I replace Outlook?

December 8, 2004 1:46 PM

I'm looking for a personal organizer program or web service or whatever to replace what I currently use Outlook for. (More inside.)

I'm also looking for some grammar, cause apparently I ain't got none.

I want to switch email programs, because I don't particularly like Outlook's interface or bugs or the way it loves to crash. But I love the calendar, and use it as my organizer. I'd be using Thunderbird in a second if I didn't need that.

So, I had the idea that I'd write my own web-based organizer. But that'd be a lot of work. And I'm lazy. So what are some recommendations for decent personal organizers (of the stand-alone-local-program kind, the install-on-your-web-space kind, or the use-our-free-service kind)?

posted by billybunny to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Have you tried Sunbird, the Mozilla calendar component? I'm pretty sure it speaks ICS and WebDAV, which means you can use it with something like PHP iCalendar.
posted by revgeorge at 2:22 PM on December 8, 2004

When I left Outlook for Thunderbird, I switched to Palm Desktop, which is free and works great without one of their organizers.
posted by muckster at 2:25 PM on December 8, 2004

Plaxo.
posted by trillion at 4:28 PM on December 8, 2004

I switched to Time and Chaos after an ongoing search for a non-outlook organizer that lasted many years. It does everything I needed it to. Contact list, calendar, to-do list, etc -- but I can't help but feel like there's a better solution out there. I haven't found it yet, though.
posted by Jairus at 5:59 PM on December 8, 2004

There is a Mozilla Calendar Project, which I haven't tried, but looks cool. I've read some articles that say Mozilla is intending on incorporating a fully-functional Enterprise-level calendar much like Outlook's in future releases. I like Calendarscope, but it's strictly standalone - there's no server-level collaboration like with Outlook.
posted by sixdifferentways at 6:02 PM on December 8, 2004

oops - forgot the link:
Calendarscope
posted by sixdifferentways at 6:03 PM on December 8, 2004

This Plaxo thing looks nifty. I wish the plugin version had support for more programs, though.
posted by Jairus at 6:13 PM on December 8, 2004

I'll second Time and Chaos. But if you want web-based stuff, try Yahoo's services. Between e-mail, calendar, to-do list, address book, notepad, briefcase, custom homepage, etc., it all adds up to a pretty full suite of interoperating tools.
posted by Tubes at 6:16 PM on December 8, 2004