[K12OSN] No flames: Why use M$ offerings?

[Les Mikesell]

On Sun, 2004-05-02 at 14:54, Jason Neiffer wrote:

> What if you like the closed source/Windows version of something better?  I
> use Outlook 2003 for email because I like it more. 

Some choices have a side effect of taking away all the others and
some don't.  The underlying difference is that programs that
use standard communication protocols and/or well known file
formats allow choices, while proprietary formats lock you
into a single vendor until you are willing to change everything
at once or lose some data.  If you are running outlook email
over POP/IMAP/SMTP you can switch programs at any time and use
the same server simultaneously with different free or
commercial clients.

> But, I still use Outlook and for that matter, the software
> that came with my old Palm Pilot which plugs nicely into
> Outlook.

A Palm device will sync nicely with Mac/isync, evolution and
some other things. 

---
  Les Mikesell
    les at futuresource.com