Thunderbird

These days I am using all open source software.. I switched to Mozilla thunderbird and it is surely a better Email client. Compared to Outlook, it is a small software (In respect to size of the software) and handles all the functionality offered by Outlook. Only catch is you need to have some Add-ons installed to the base software.

When coupled with IMAP, thunderbird is just great.. But, it has its drawbacks as well and can be addressed with slight tweaks to the settings. I will list down some tweaks and settings to the basic installation that makes thunderbird a competition to MS Outlook.

Calender support

Thunderbird doesn't have a calender by default. So, it can not handle Appointments and schedules by default. To overcome this, we have to install an add-on called Lightning. This is also developed by Mozilla corporation and it integrates into thunderbird very well.

Minimize to tray

Most of the people use outlook in a minimized status to save space on their taskbar. Thunderbird can achieve this by installing an add-on called Minimize to tray.

Cursor position in Reply messages

Thunderbird adds the previous mail content as a quote and the cursor is positioned at the bottom when replying any mail. This is bit uneasy as we have to always press "Ctrl + Home" to go to the start of the mail before writing anything. To tweak this, follow the steps mentioned below:
1. In Thunderbird: Go to "Edit > Account Settings" *
2. Select "Composition & Addressing" for the account in question
3. Make sure the "Automatically quote the original message when replying" checkbox is checked.
4. In the drop-down box below that, select the option "start my reply above the quote"

* On Windows, the option can be found in: Tools -> Account Settings.