To OE or not to OE

Hi

The present computer that I'm using is a few years old and it came bundled with OE5. I've never really used OE except back then when I had a Hotmail account. But nowadays with all the correspondence, a website up and another one in the planning I have to use either OE or the currently touted Thunderbird so as to fetch the mails from the different areas. While considering T-Bird I read up on some of the user reviews and visited their forums. Not all is well in their skies as evidenced by the many complaints. I know that problems will pop up in OE also so I guess in the larger picture it's simply the standard hazards in the computer realm.

With forums such as these I try to get everything I need to know in one go so as to not make of it a long-running commentary over many posts. A few questions:

1. Obviously, since I have OE5 what I will have to do is download OE6. I can't download the 6 plus packs since I use WinMe as my OS. I know that to some WinMe makes the hair on the back of their necks stand up but quite honestly it has served my purposes well, have never had any major problems with it and besides I really don't need the bells and whistles of XP. On a side note, I will wait to see how Vista plays out and will decide then. Anyway, I figure that I can simply download 6 but I'm wondering if it's better to just remove 5 and have a fresh install.

2. OE has had a rep for the virus vulnerability aspect and I'm wondering if the AVG that I'm using now is sufficient or is there some other measure that I have to take into account.

3. When I asked the host of my website about configuring the email that came with it - Horde - he said that if I used OE then there would be certain things that I couldn't do with Horde. I'm still a little confused about that, I figure that if I want to do all that Horde offers then I can simply just access it through my Cpanel and do whatever I want to do from it directly rather than OE. Perhaps some of you know what he was talking about as he really didn't get into too much detail. Are there some complications when accessing your email directly if it is also hooked-up to Horde or any other email service?

4. Another problem which I encountered while reading reviews of T-Bird is that if the user wanted to remove files to place them elsewhere the complaints were tantamount to parting the Red Sea. Without getting into all the angles of this, is OE user-friendly enough insofar as transfers, deletions, etc.?
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All in all, what I'm looking for with most software and the like is utilization without having to worry about a large percentage of the time. I've read many reviews about OE where it's considered a fairly solid and dependable unit and so I thought I'd come here and get your opinions and advice. Needless to say, if I went to the T-Bird forum and asked this I would probably suffer the fate of many statues in public parks that have not been washed in some time.

Any answers will be appreciated.

Best Wishes

Dan V.

 

Hi Dan V. and welcome to the forum.

I've been using Outlook too long and really don't remember enough about OE to help out.

You should get some good responses here since we do have some very experienced users who run OE. I think maybe some detail about your item #4 would help though - some specifics so we can be sure exactly what you want to know on that one.

 

Dan V. I use strictly OE, currently I have no need for Outlook....yet . With what you're doing, I'd say upgrade only to 5.5. It seems to me, You don't really have any need for 6.0. I also had run with no problems on ME when I had it.
I went to XP only due to the need for my Graphics (Video, etc.) and some better Programs I wanted to install.
As for AVG, I also have it. Hopefully you also have some antispyware installed, so just keep it all up to date and remember to do routine house cleaning chores on the PC and all should be OK.

HTH

 

Dan V.--I cannot answer all your questions, but here are some limited comments:
1) Have you been using Windows Update? ( http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/default.htm )
That site should offer you IE6 SP1, and as you know IE and OE are bundled together. And even though MS has stopped "supporting" WinME, the Updates that were available up to the date of the end of support for WinME are still available at the Windows Update site. But if for some reason you cannot get anything from Windows Update, then here are two links that will help
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/ie6sp1/default.mspx

http://www.broomeman.com/support/wsiedown.html
2) There is nothing inherently unsecure about OE6. If anything it is more secure than OE5.x. You of course should not use the Preview Pane. You should run OE with the settings of IE's Restricted Sites (Tools|Options|Security tab). And if you worry about executable attachments, then there other settings on the Security tab that will not permit you to open such attachments until you override the settings. Once you install OE6, you should again try to visit Windows Update, since there have been many Cumulative and other Updates since the 2002 release. (Cumulative Updates are cumulative, so you only have to download and install the latest.) I do not believe there is any need to uninstall OE5 before installing OE6. You should be able to keep your existing email messages and Address Book.
3) I know nothing about Horde. Here are a couple of references.
http://webmail.demo.hub.org/imp/login.php?frameset=
http://www.horde.org/
Since I know nothing, I cannot comment whether there is any benefit to using Horde compared to just using OE's own mail capabilities, or whether Horde is an add-on or substitute for OE.
4) Regret to say that I also know nothing about Thunderbird. I have used OE ever since I started to use a PC. With care about the Security settings, I have no concerns that I am running an inherently less safe or competent system. Maybe others have different views.
Here are some articles that compare the two
http://www.google.com/search?source...GGLD:2004-31,GGLD:en&q=compare+Thunderbird+OE
I think most of the bias for Thunderbird is that it is "Open Source ". Not sure that is much of an advantage to me.
5) There are, of course, other email programs. The owners of this site offer one, Courier.
http://www.rosecitysoftware.com/courier/
Never used it either.

EDIT--I see irdreed posted while I was typing. I still think IE/OE6 is more secure than v5.x.

 

Welshjim,

My comment was stated for when I was still running Win ME, a few years back. I agree with the statement you made though.