When I began on internet, I simply used my AOL account to collect my email. It was simple (far simpler than just about anything else, actually) because is was included with AOL package. Once you set up AOL there was no configuration of any kind. You just used email browser and you were all set.

After I moved to Pacbell, I simply began using Pacbell email account that was provided as part of service. It's simple, after all, and better yet, it doesn't cost anything at all.

Later, like many people, I learned about services such as Hotmail, Yahoo mail and Excite mail. I got very excited, because these services solved several problems for me.

First and most importantly, by using my Hotmail account I could receive and send email from everywhere that had web access. While in theory I could do same with my Pacbell account, it was a hassle. Hotmail neatly solved that problem. True, web interface was no where near as nice as that provided by Outlook Express, but it was usable and convenient.

On top of that, as I began promoting my own web sites, I found that there are good reasons not to use your own private email account. I learned hard way, of course, by submitting my site to one of those FFA services and using my own personal email account address. I must have received 10,000 emails in a period of a couple of hours! All junk (the reason FFA lists exist is in exchange for a link list owner gets to send you one or more promotional email messages) and most even downright silly. Years later I was still getting an occasional email message as a result of that one mistake.

The next time I submitted to an FFA list (before I learned how silly these things are) I got a little smarter and opened a Hotmail account. All of email messages were directed to that mailbox, which I deleted a few days later. This saved me from getting tons of spam and wading through an incredible number of absolutely useless junk.

The final problem was anonymity. There are times on internet when not giving out one's personal email address is a good idea. I found email boxes at Mail.Com were perfect for this purpose. It requires only a few minutes to create a mailbox which is more-or-less untraceable. While I have not had any real use for this kind of anonymity, I mention it because it is one major reason some people use free email accounts.

Let's start with positive things about this program. The email client is on a par with most other email clients. You can do just about anything that you would ever desire, including creating maintaining email accounts, receiving messages, replying, forwarding, and so on.

One of real benefits to Outlook Express is ability to create identities. I don't know about you, but I have several email accounts. Using standard Outlook 2000 client all of messages from all of accounts get thrown together in one list (my understanding is that Outlook XP fixes this, but who wants to install such a piece of garbage as Office XP on their system?) Outlook express allows you to create more-or-less separate, well, everything for each and every email account (if you so desire). This way, all of contacts, inbox, sendbox and so on are totally unique to account.

The newsgroup reader is standard, online type. This was first newsgroup reader that I ever used, and it meets most of requirements of anyone doing light to medium reading and posting. Other, far better newsgroup clients now exist, however, so Outlook Express cannot be recommended based upon newsgroup client alone.

Contacts are handled in a more or less standard way. You've got a list of contacts, and you can add their mailing information as needed. The contact can be defined directly from an email message, which is a nice touch.

The rule engine in Outlook Express probably was considered advanced many years ago, but by today's standards it is mundane. However, it can be used to block spam, file away messages and perform autoreplies.

A feature which is really cool is called Email Stationary. One of best features about Outlook Express is built-in stationary editor. It's not super-sophisticated, but it does job of creating simple and intermediate stationary files very well.

Okay, now for negatives about this product. I can sum up biggest negative in just one sentence:

The reason why viruses such as Melissa, Iloveyou and like exist and thrive is proliferation of Outlook and Outlook Express.

You see, Outlook Express (and it's big brother Outlook) support email scripting. Other email clients do allow you to execute programs and scripts, but very few of them allow email client itself to be invoked from script or executable. Why is this a problem?