4 ms·

Ask HN: Why isn't there a better alternative to MS Outlook?

8 points by digitcatphd 5y ago

emptyparadise 5y ago
Email client startups are always doomed to get acquihired.
- digitcatphd 5y ago
  lol
runjake 5y ago
I suppose it’s due to two primary reasons: 1. It integrates best with their company groupware server, which is probably some variant of Exchange. 2. A lot of people (inexplicably to me) seem to really like using Outlook. They understand it well, the UX is relatively static, and it is powerful.
jamesfinlayson 5y ago
I haven't explored all of what Outlook can do but I assume it's like Jira and can do all sorts of things and integrates with all sorts of things. If you're just comparing basic email and calendar, I'm not sure. For enterprise, if you don't already have a competing product, taking on Outlook is a big gamble. For casual users, built-in email clients are probably good enough for most users.
p1esk 5y ago
Oh wow, a blast from the past, I haven't heard about anyone using Outlook since like 2003...
- yuppie_scum 5y ago
  Edgy little joke there! You must not interact with many people whose companies have an AD/Azure/Office 365 based email (e.g. almost everybody not at faangs). Outlook is really pretty good these days in my experience with the Mac and iOS clients. Calendaring is seamless and they even have a good zoom integration (even if it wants to steer you to teams). Considering email is almost useless in 2021 especially with all the compliance crap like mimecast involved in using it, I couldn’t ask for much more than Outlook aside from a couple small ui issues.
  - p1esk 5y ago
    Why not just use gmail? That is what the last 5 startups I worked at used (but 90% of written work communication took place on slack).
tcbawo 5y ago
I don't think enough people are willing to pay for email servers or clients. The corporate customers that would are probably also buying other services. So it's probably not worth it for them unless there is decent bundling/integration.
PaulHoule 5y ago
Try https://www.emclient.com/ https://www.emclient.com/
ggm 5y ago
Because the hill of "whats wrong with email/calendar/notes/todo/video" is a steep hill to climb. IF you focus on email, lots of clients are better. If you seek integration into calendar services, you can't beat Google Mail. I am running the current spec outlook on OSX, and its a dog, slow, lumpy, badly designed. Mail.app has problems but its better by far, but harder to configure in some ways. Maybe outlook is the embrace-extend-control example we need to cite, when people ask why we worry about the modern Microsoft?
WalterGR 5y ago
I used Thunderbird back in the day and it was slow but excellent in most other regards. And extensions fixed those "most other regards." I don't know what the state of Thunderbird is now, though, especially since it no longer supports older extensions.

8 points by digitcatphd 5y ago

emptyparadise 5y ago

Email client startups are always doomed to get acquihired.

digitcatphd 5y ago
lol

runjake 5y ago

I suppose it’s due to two primary reasons: 1. It integrates best with their company groupware server, which is probably some variant of Exchange. 2. A lot of people (inexplicably to me) seem to really like using Outlook. They understand it well, the UX is relatively static, and it is powerful.

jamesfinlayson 5y ago

I haven't explored all of what Outlook can do but I assume it's like Jira and can do all sorts of things and integrates with all sorts of things. If you're just comparing basic email and calendar, I'm not sure. For enterprise, if you don't already have a competing product, taking on Outlook is a big gamble. For casual users, built-in email clients are probably good enough for most users.

p1esk 5y ago

Oh wow, a blast from the past, I haven't heard about anyone using Outlook since like 2003...

yuppie_scum 5y ago
Edgy little joke there! You must not interact with many people whose companies have an AD/Azure/Office 365 based email (e.g. almost everybody not at faangs). Outlook is really pretty good these days in my experience with the Mac and iOS clients. Calendaring is seamless and they even have a good zoom integration (even if it wants to steer you to teams). Considering email is almost useless in 2021 especially with all the compliance crap like mimecast involved in using it, I couldn’t ask for much more than Outlook aside from a couple small ui issues.
- p1esk 5y ago
  Why not just use gmail? That is what the last 5 startups I worked at used (but 90% of written work communication took place on slack).

tcbawo 5y ago

I don't think enough people are willing to pay for email servers or clients. The corporate customers that would are probably also buying other services. So it's probably not worth it for them unless there is decent bundling/integration.

PaulHoule 5y ago

Try https://www.emclient.com/ https://www.emclient.com/

ggm 5y ago

Because the hill of "whats wrong with email/calendar/notes/todo/video" is a steep hill to climb. IF you focus on email, lots of clients are better. If you seek integration into calendar services, you can't beat Google Mail. I am running the current spec outlook on OSX, and its a dog, slow, lumpy, badly designed. Mail.app has problems but its better by far, but harder to configure in some ways. Maybe outlook is the embrace-extend-control example we need to cite, when people ask why we worry about the modern Microsoft?

WalterGR 5y ago

I used Thunderbird back in the day and it was slow but excellent in most other regards. And extensions fixed those "most other regards." I don't know what the state of Thunderbird is now, though, especially since it no longer supports older extensions.