Fastmail and the Continuing Quest to be an ex-Outlook User
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Thanks to Sutha, I’ve recently discovered Chattermail, a most excellent and wildly well-supported push email client for the Treo. But an unruly IMAP implementation at my host has been making life difficult for Chattermail and for Outlook on the desktop (and Outlook already has its own IMAP issues). So, again at Sutha’s suggestion, I’ve now switched hosts to Fastmail, and while it’s still early days, so far I’m dazzled by the difference.
IMAP runs smoothly and access to the Fastmail servers is blindingly fast. Fastmail’s webmail is superb - the page design in rich and powerfully well-featured, but simple to operate. Web pages snap up in an instant. It’s very impressive.
In fact, Fastmail’s webmail is so good, I’ve dropped Outlook from the laptop and am running email off the web for a while to see what happens. It’s not a divorce (yet) - more of a trial separation. But not using Outlook has dramatically accelerated workflow on the laptop - the web is faster. This is not a surprise for many, of course - Gmail users are legion. But as I’ve blogged before, Outlook and I are joined at the hip, though I’m constantly on the lookout for a better way. So encountering Fastmail is yet another opportunity to explore the idea that I ought to actually have the power to control how the various bits and pieces of desktop functionality fit together. It should be easier to do this, but Microsoft has a lock on me because the unholy trinity - address book, email and PDA sync - all need to peacefully co-exist (OK, calendar too, but “unholy trinity” sounds better than “evil quartet”).
I’m happy to try out these changes, of course, because it’s just so darned annoying to sync my Outlook data across platforms outside of an Exchange environment. It’s an interesting strategic choice for MS - in their effort to force me to buy Exchange - they are encouraging me and many others like me - all of us now able to collaborate online and easily publish to each other the results of our labours - to experiment with their competitors’ solutions. And in the “as it turns out it happened much faster than anyone expected” long run, these solutions will come.
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Rob,
For the last 10 years I’ve been experimenting with different email clients, I’ve tried them all. Eudora, Outlook, Outlook Express, Apple Mail, Thundirbird, Entourage, and a crap load of no-name clients. After 10 years of experimentation, the best client (by a mile) that I’ve used is Gmail. I have to hand it to Google, they’ve built the best email client in the world.
-Theron
Rob:
I’ve been a faithful FastMail user for over 2 years. If they ever add a calendar–watch out.
John
P.S. (To Theron) I am surprised when people use Gmail for mission-critical email. It is still “beta” and if you look at the TOS, you’d have to think twice. Google “gmail account deleted” and see what you get. Good luck…
Rob:
It looks like Google will beat FastMail to the punch with a calendar app (aka CL2):
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/08/exclusive-screenshots-google-calendar/
John
Hello Rob,
I’ve been a Fastmail user for several years now. I started out with a free account, then upgraded to Member, then to Full, and now have an Enhanced account which hosts my domain. Since I’ve done this I’ve not lost email (unlike frequently when enom’s services were forwarding my mail from my registrar). I no longer need Outlook.
Google is nice. However, I use my gmail account for backing up what comes into my Fastmail account. Also Google doesn’t do IMAP. There are scripting techniques that can be used in FM that Gmail and other providers don’t have.
Enjoy your new FM account!
Rob:
Funny, it was when I bought a treo (3 weeks back) that I realized my current email scheme (pop3 gmail and eudora) were wholy inadequate. got sick of deleting and re-categorizing things 3 times. I have also moved to chatter mail and fastmail (one week in, so far so good), but am still sorting out the desktop piece. Fastmail has broken Eudora enough times for me to believe I need another option. Am hopeful about Mulberry, but I have not gotten it sorted yet (although early tests indicate that it is blindingly fast in comparison to Eudora). I won’t get started on outlook, it’s just bad…
On freeing your palm from outlook, if you have a p, Act does a passable job of calendar and contact management. It is slow, but you can get a reasonably good integration with palm that is quite powerful. The best part for me is the link between calendar items and contacts.
Best of luck in your email struggle…
Ben,
FYI when I tried Chattermail with FastMail I got a whopping bandwidth bill from my carrier. I think it has something to do with the way Chatter implements IMAP. But in any event, there were pages of connects on the bill, about $150 in monthly bandwidth vs. the usual $50. Yikes.