Today I declared my independence from Internet Explorer. I’m fed up with all of the problems that it has and security risks. The problem is since the demise of Netscape circa 1999, there really hasn’t been a good reliable alternative. Then I ran across something that mentioned the new Mozilla Browser Firefox. I gave it a whirl and immediately loved it. Simple, elegant, not bloated. Just like the old Netscape Browsers. It also has Pop Up blockers and extensions you can install to read RSS feeds. Of course I haven’t quite got the hang of that yet, but I’m working on it.
I then decided to try the Mozilla mail program Thunderbird. It seemed to be working until I decided to try and import my old Outlook stuff. About 90% into the conversion, it bombed out. So I was stuck with folder after folder of useless data. Worse yet, I tried to delete the folders and try again and it just kept bombing out. I then uninstalled the program only to find out that when I re-installed it, it still had all of my email information and yes, the corrupted folders. Ugh.
So I’ve scoured my registry for every last reference to Thunderbird and will try one more time. If it doesn’t work, then it looks like its back to Outlook for me. Doesn’t anyone make a good Windows compatible email reader? Andy has set up his GMail account so that all of his server mail gets sent there. I was thinking of doing the same, but I am a bit uneasy with Google having access to all of my emails. Nothing is ever 100% safe.