Monopoly Mail?

By JOSHUA QUITTNER

I've always been a fan of Eudora, the versatile, easy-to-use Internet e-mail program. It wasn't just that it was named after Mississippi legend Eudora Welty (inspired by her short story "Why I Live at the P.O."). Nor was it that Steve Dorner, the guy who wrote the program a decade ago and gave it away free, personally answers the 1,000 e-mail messages he gets each week from admirers and flamers alike. What I loved most about Eudora was that, aside from working beautifully, it is not owned by Microsoft.

Now, I am not a Microsoft bigot, exactly. I just worry about what the world will be like when it finally squashes all competition. For instance, I used Netscape's browser for years and have it on my computer still. But it's become something of an affectation, like sporting a DOLE IN '96 bumper sticker. Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4.0 does most of what Netscape's browser does, and it fits better with the Windows operating system--exactly as Bill Gates and his evil geniuses intended. Besides, I got so sick of all the insistent dialogue boxes that Windows popped up whenever I installed new software--asking whether I was sure I wouldn't rather be using IE 4.0 and wouldn't I like to at least try IE 4.0 and didn't I know that many of my friends have grown quite fond of IE 4.0--that I finally clicked yes, what the hell, just leave me alone... Guiltily, I now actually prefer IE.

So it is with Microsoft's $100 e-mail program, Outlook 98. It came out in March, but I resisted, finally installing it a few months ago. I won't be reverting to the $40 Eudora Pro 4.0 (not even if Eudora changes its name to "Fry," after Stephen Fry, my favorite novelist this month).

As it did with IE, Microsoft has beefed up Outlook until it does everything the competition does, and then some. For instance, Outlook handles addresses better than Eudora and saves my weary fingers wear and tear. Send or reply to a message, and the recipient's name and address are automatically filed in a directory. Next time you send that person a message, a few keystrokes of the name will prompt Outlook to finish the job.

Another terrific thing that Outlook gave us: a better bozo filter. Filters, as you probably know, allow us to clump together e-mail when it arrives. I have filters that separate into different folders mail to TIME magazine, TIME DAILY and Lunch-L, a mailing list I set up for the six friends I used to dine with every day when I was a newspaper reporter. Outlook went even further by adding a simple bozo filter, which allows me to click on any message, select "Junk Mail" from a drop-down menu, and banish to the slag heap for eternity anything that arrives from that sender. The torrent of garbage hasn't diminished; I just don't see it anymore.

In a typical deal you can't refuse, Microsoft throws in a scheduler and a "contact manager," which allows you to store stuff like snail-mail addresses for associates. Both interoperate with the e-mail program and the other smoothly efficient hitmen of the Microsoft "family": Word, which switchbladed Word Perfect in my machine; Excel, which garroted my copy of Lotus 1-2-3, and, of course, IE.

How can anyone compete? One way is price. Several fine e-mail programs, while not quite as good as Outlook, are free. The best of these is Pegasus Mail, which you can find at www.pegasus.usa.com Try it. Maybe you'll sleep better at night than I do.

See time.com/personal for more on e-mail. See Josh and Anita Hamilton on CNNfn, Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. E.T.