# OS X Mail vs. Entourage



## IT 101 (Dec 7, 2005)

What is better in your opinion. OS X Mail or Entourage 2004?


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## Twenty7Delta (Sep 18, 2005)

I just find OS X mail is much faster and has all the options I need. The only reason I would have to switch would be to have one app with all the PIM components in one. I struggled through the switch to ical and such and now love the integration between them all.


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## PosterBoy (Jan 22, 2002)

I'm not entirely sure that OS X Mail is better. Maybe "less worse" is a better way to put it.


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## gwillikers (Jun 19, 2003)

It's kind of like comparing an SUV to a compact car, because Entourage has so many more aspects to it with it's integration to Office. If it weren't for it's database corruption issues, Entourage would be a near perfect email program. Yet it's probably more than most people really need.
And that's where Mail comes in, less bulk and quite elegant.


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## Script Kiddie (Jan 30, 2003)

Isnt the big problem with Entourage that spotlight won't see the emails?


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## macsackbut (Dec 15, 2004)

Script Kiddie said:


> Isnt the big problem with Entourage that spotlight won't see the emails?


That's the big issue for me, at any rate. I used Entourage quite happily for years, but switched to Mail with Tiger for this very reason. 

Yes, Entourage is better integrated with Office, but Mail is better integrated with OS X. I don't miss the MS program at all now.

[rant] The only major annoyance for me with Mail is what a PITA it is to switch the spell checker from French to English and vice versa and then get the new spell checker check the text of a message (you have to scroll the cursor through every word!). My wish (and it was the same wish for Entourage) is that there be a way to toggle spell checkers with a keystroke. Admittedly, this isn't something most users are looking for, but it would make my life a whole lot easier. [/rant]


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## Chris (Feb 8, 2001)

I suppose answering this poll wasn't completely honest, since I haven't actually used Entourage on my mini, but I deal with Outlook every friggin' day at work on a Windows machine, and all I can say is urrkk! XX) 

The damn thing crashes with appaling regularity, I get strangely formatted e-mails and half the time attachments are lost. Give me Mail any time. It has been rock solid, no lost data, and it just doesn't crash! :clap:

For me it's a no-brainer; Mail just works, and works well. :clap:


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## IT 101 (Dec 7, 2005)

I would agree with everyone’s comments that OS X mail is faster, and better. I never had it crash on me, whereas Entourage has crashed on me on several occasions.


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## thejst (Feb 1, 2005)

PosterBoy said:


> I'm not entirely sure that OS X Mail is better. Maybe "less worse" is a better way to put it.


This hits it right on the head. I really like Mail but it seems to always have problems with mail counts, messages disappearing and POP connections that I am ready to go back to Entourage..


James


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## MACSPECTRUM (Oct 31, 2002)

I tried Entourage for a while back in my Panther days.
One data base crash and I was back to Mail.

I don't need the hassle of losing email.

OS X Mail hands down for reliability.


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Entourage as a mail client is just plain awful and dangerous. It's file structure of holding all messages as a single file is ludicrous and while it says a 2 gb limit clients have seen it all just go "poof" well below that limit. Any small mishap with the single file that holds all the messages and bye bye.
A bad block on a drive might take out a couple of individual emails in Mail - it can and has taken out the ALL the email messages in Entourage.

If you are having Mail issues then it's not Mail it's something in your system or hardware as the fundamental app and file structure is very robust even under recovery condition.

If you value your email safety from loss you'll run screaming from Entourage. It's the only specific app we have a permanent warning about on our web site.


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## pismo923 (Dec 21, 2002)

I have tried Mail under 10.3.9 and found it to be okay with one very annoying problem. Frequently it seems to forget login passswords for my accounts. I would have thought that this would have been sorted out by now. Does this still happen in tiger mail?

As far as Entourage goes, if you back up often (as you should with any vital data) and rebuild the database regularly to keep the size down as much as possible what is the big problem then. Going so far as to use an application like Entourage Email Archive X adds even more data safety. 

I have used Entourage with fewer annoyances than Mail to be honest...maybe I am just lucky so far. Regardless of which app you use is frequent back up not the key?


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Yes back up is critical but so is the structure of the file system and Entourage is horrible.

10.3.9 had lots of problems and we did not and do not recommend it. Mail 2.0 as part of Tiger is better and as for passwords sometimes it's a server issue where it says "refused". It's the server that may be refusing the valid password - not the system forgetting it.


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## Bosco (Apr 29, 2004)

I didn't like earlier versions of Mail and used Entourage. But since I installed Tiger, I started using Mail and stayed with it. It seems more "streamlined". The other day I reinstalled Tiger on a new drive and installed Entourage. I opened Entourage, looked at it and will probably never look at it again. I do prefer Mail. YMMV.

I'm also using Preview and TextEdit instead of PDF and Word to view documents. Those apps took too long to launch.


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## IT 101 (Dec 7, 2005)

Bosco said:


> since I installed Tiger, I started using Mail and stayed with it. It seems more "streamlined".


I couldnt agree with you more OS X mail is allot more streamlined then Microsoft Entourage by far.


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## harrytse (Nov 3, 2005)

from years of Outlook, proper, conditoning, it was only natural to gravitate towards Entourage, particular with past envy of the Entourage interface. In the end I forced myself to go to Mail instead, cuz of the .mac integration. But iCal took more force, the drawers was and still is infuriating, but iSync and .mac managed to sway the vote.


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## PosterBoy (Jan 22, 2002)

For those of you mentioning that Entourage uses a single database file, its worth mentioning that until OS X 10.4 Mail used a single file per mailbox to store all its files too.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Personally, I've not had any problems with Entourage. The current size of my identity is 734MB. I run the utility about once a month and backup my entire striped RAID to external FW.

The reason I use Entourage is because of the tight integration of email and PIM capabilities, and the new Project Manager mode has been very useful for me!


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