Apple Mail vs. Microsoft Entourage

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I have recently decided to set up a program to receive my e-mail for my school account and AOL e-mail account and am wondering which program would be better for handling e-mail, Apple's Mail or Microsoft Entourage?

Also I do not have a .Mac account ... yet, I am still wondering if $100 a year is worth it, and I know if I do create an account, that Apple's Mail is of coarse a better choice.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    hanxuhanxu Posts: 22member
    I use mail, simply because I can take advantage of address book and ical, they are both cool apps.



    Entourage is cool, but no way as cool as the apple apps, in entourage, you can't even search a whole message.



    .Mac worth it? It's all depends, I used to use .Mac for a year, and afterwards found that I only use it for email, then there are much cheaper email hosts provides the same service with much cheaper price, however, if you share pictures a lot, then yes, it is very simple to use (.Mac) for sharing photos.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    I use Mail also...for almost the same reasons as hanxu.



    I love Mail and Address Book. I love the Smart Groups feature in Address Book and the Smart Mailboxes in Mail.



    Address Book is also used by many other applications I use (such as Adium)...since Entourage uses it's proprietary structure, no app can access Entourages built-in address book.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by SPlatt886

    I have recently decided to set up a program to receive my e-mail for my school account and AOL e-mail account and am wondering which program would be better for handling e-mail, Apple's Mail or Microsoft Entourage?

    Also I do not have a .Mac account ... yet, I am still wondering if $100 a year is worth it, and I know if I do create an account, that Apple's Mail is of coarse a better choice.




    Entourage is a steaming pile of Microsoft crap. Virtually everyday, I read new threads from Entourage users trying to cope with its quirks, "features," and frustrations. If you must access an Exchange server that is setup so as to be incompatible with Mail, then you have to use Entourage. Otherwise, leave it alone. Don't like Mail? Use Eudora, Thunderbird, or what other mail client you can find. The AOL Communicator mail client allows you to unify your AOL, POP3, and IMAP accounts.
  • Reply 4 of 12
    sport73sport73 Posts: 438member
    I used mail for the longest time, and would prefer to still...But, I can't seem to get it to connect to my company's recently upgraded Exchange 2003 server. Entourage connects fine, but the same settings in Mail don't seem to work. If they did, I would stick with Mail because of Spotlight integration. I can't find ANYTHING in Entourage...
  • Reply 5 of 12
    Mail is an excellent application that demonstrates the power of Cocoa application development and tight integration into Mac OS X (2 things I doubt Microsoft will ever adopt).



    I've used Mail and Entourage for years. I've always used Mail for my personal email, and at work I use Entourage because we use Exchange. I've noticed lots of little nuances in both over the years because I have to support both for Mac faculty and and staff of my University. It's no contest, Mail is better (for POP, IMAP, or .Mac). You have no idea how many times we've been scratching our heads and getting frustrated at the problems and design decisions Microsoft made with Entourage.



    Just try searching for something. It's so much easier and better and Mail. How about a smart Junk Mail filter that actually learns what you specify Junk is? Mail's got that, Entourage doesn't. RTF email composition? Mail, yep. Entourage, nope. How about a big, proprietary mail database file that Spotlight can't index and all mail must be lost if it becomes corrupt? Mail: hell no. Entourage: hell yes.



    The list goes on. Mail is designed from the ground up to be a tightly integrated, well design email program. Spotlight, Address Book, iCal integration. WebKit. Cocoa APIs (universal spell checker, cmd+ctrl+d to look up in dictionary, etc). Entourage is just Microsoft's excuse to say they have a Mac email program. It's got lots of legacy code which makes it feel sluggish, it's got lots of little interface annoyances, and don't get me started on its Exchange support.



    In typical Microsoft fashion, you'll have to click though many more windows, menus and widgets in Entourage to accomplish the same task that Mail will do with much less effort. And you'll be presented with lots of annoying, confusing dialog boxes along the way. ("Are you sure you want to do that?...") Mail seems way less intrusive; it just gets out of your way and lets you do your work.
  • Reply 6 of 12
    mrsinmrsin Posts: 163member
    Since jumping the fence over to the Apple side this past September, the best email client program has been Apple's Mail app. I am constantly experimenting with the latest offerings though, for example, I'd be in heaven if the makers of "IncrediMail" made a version for OS X *sigh.* Still, I've recently been trying "Thunderbird" by Mozilla - the producers of Firefox and Camino web browsers. I'm currently testing RC1 of version 1.5 and I must say, it shows promise, any other thoughts out there on this alternative? If you'd like to give it a look see, you can go here: Thunderbird 1.5 RC1



    I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, comments, suggestions and any other alternatives to Micro$oft programs .

  • Reply 7 of 12
    maccrazymaccrazy Posts: 2,658member
    I have tried both entourage and mail and prefer Apple's variation. It does almost all Entourage does but has the benefit of Address Book and iCal links. To answer the .Mac question. All the features I used on .Mac (e-mail, iDisk, photo sharing, etc.) can be got for free so I did not renew my .mac account and it expired yesterday!



    So get a gmail account and use Apple Mail.
  • Reply 8 of 12
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    I switched from Outlook Express to Mail.



    The only feature I miss is that I used to be able to have messages routed to a certain mailbox (for example those with 'Christmas contest' in the subject line) and then have all those respondents added to a separate e-mailing list.



    It's easy enough to do the first part by Mail's rules, but I've never figured out how to have those particular people automatically added to a special group in Address Book.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Frank777

    I switched from Outlook Express to Mail.



    The only feature I miss is that I used to be able to have messages routed to a certain mailbox (for example those with 'Christmas contest' in the subject line) and then have all those respondents added to a separate e-mailing list.



    It's easy enough to do the first part by Mail's rules, but I've never figured out how to have those particular people automatically added to a special group in Address Book.




    Try Automator, I believe it has built-in actions to do just what you need...



    Grab mail from X Mailbox.



    Add Sender's to Address Book.



    Add Sender's to Group in Address Book.
  • Reply 10 of 12
    I have Entourage, and in my opinion it is better than the apple mail.

    I also think that Entourage is the only item from the Microsoft Office package (for Mac) that works really good.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    I've been an Outlook Express to Entourage user (on Mac) since they existed.



    I feel Entourage to be more solid and offer a lot more options.



    The ONLY thing I do NOT like about Entourage is that it does not use MacOS X Address Book for contact integration.. and with Spotlight, you cannot search the mails. MS Says they will resolve this eventually.



    If you have never used either, I'm sure you'll be fine with Mail..
  • Reply 12 of 12
    cyloncylon Posts: 126member
    .Mac membership is on sale today for $68 from the Apple store for those thinking about it. I decided to take the plunge at that price.
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