Hotmail v outlook.com



  • Mum's used Hotmail for the past few months but has now received messages about it changing to outlook.com. From what I understand, hotmail is to be deprecated at some point, so those deciding to dig in will find themselves without mail soon.

    Not being a user of either, I suspect I'm going to get support calls about differences in appearance and functionality.

    So, Qs to those out there:
    1. anyone made the leap yet?
    2. what gotchas do you need to look out for? What's going to catch you unawares?
    3. what new features - if any -  does outlook.com bring that people have found useful?
    4. Is it worth making the leap to another provider (gmail, yahoo, etc) instead?


  • @Cassidy said:

    Mum's used Hotmail for the past few months but has now received messages about it changing to outlook.com. From what I understand, hotmail is to be deprecated at some point, so
    those deciding to dig in will find themselves without mail soon.

    Not being a user of either, I suspect I'm going to get support calls about differences in appearance and functionality.

    So, Qs to those out there:
    1. anyone made the leap yet?
    2. what gotchas do you need to look out for? What's going to catch you unawares?
    3. what new features - if any -  does outlook.com bring that people have found useful?
    4. Is it worth making the leap to another provider (gmail, yahoo, etc) instead?

    I am also using outlook.com. Big difference is way it looks.
    website looks new.
    i have not found any new feature, but if you use it on windows 8 PC, it work like some kind of app
    . not comfortable for old people.

    no need to make leap. just get familiar with tool bar on top.
    See image below for more

    [URL=http://imgur.com/4gjA5F8][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/4gjA5F8.png[/IMG][/URL]



  • @Nagesh said:


    MY EYES! THE FONT SMOOTHING!



  • @Nagesh said:

    if you use it on windows 8 PC, it work like some kind of app
     

    Nope, an XP user. Either way, it's safer if I stick to letting her use it in a browser - at least then she knows she can email from another machine somewhere and not go looking for a specific mail app.

    @Nagesh said:

    not comfortable for old people.

    That's... what I'm afraid of.@Nagesh said:

    just get familiar with tool bar on top

    Okay, that makes sense. Ta for the tips.

    BTW: is your antialiasing fucked, Nag? Or did you run your screenshot through some kind of filter, like SSRS?

     



  • @Cassidy said:

    BTW: is your antialiasing fucked, Nag? Or did you run your screenshot through some kind of filter, like SSRS?

    That could be because I use remote desktop to connect to my client's desktop in US of A. It has theme service turned off for fast performance.



  • Pretty sure RDP does font smoothing on the client.

    However, that does go in the record books as "best reason a DailyWTF user has even given for having fucked font smoothing."



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Pretty sure RDP does font smoothing on the client.
     

    Hmh, there's a checkbox in the RDP client, but when I connect, it's still pixelpalooza.



  • @Cassidy said:

  • anyone made the leap yet?
  • Yes, I have switched over.

    @Cassidy said:

    what gotchas do you need to look out for? What's going to catch you unawares?

    It looks different and behaves differently as a result. But it's pretty easy to use... if she can read she should be fine, and most of the commands are probably the same anyway.

    @Cassidy said:

  • what new features - if any -  does outlook.com bring that people have found useful?
  • It looks an awful lot like the Exchange 2013 Outlook Web App, which is a Good Thing, as OWA is the most tolerable webmail client I have found.

    @Cassidy said:

    Is it worth making the leap to another provider (gmail, yahoo, etc) instead?

    Yahoo mail is still a thing?

    But seriously she should be fine, provided she has a modern browser, and like I said, can read.



  • @Douglasac said:

    But seriously she should be fine, provided she has a modern browser, and like I said, can read.
     

    Okay, good points, cheers.

    If she makes the leap, is there any going back?



  • You don't have to change the e-mail address on the Microsoft Account; existing users can retain their hotmail.com addresses (otherwise this would be truly horrific). Nobody will find themselves without their e-mail. You used to be able to switch back to the Hotmail UI, but I think they turned that off a while ago.



  • @electronerd said:

    You don't have to change the e-mail address on the Microsoft Account; existing users can retain their hotmail.com addresses (otherwise this would be truly horrific). Nobody will find themselves without their e-mail. You used to be able to switch back to the Hotmail UI, but I think they turned that off a while ago.
     

     

    Correct. My email address is still @hotmail.com Some people have @msn.com email address which is more cooler and less letter to type.

    I wanted to get @msn.com, but too many of my contact are having my email so I don't want to change it.



  • @electronerd said:

    You don't have to change the e-mail address on the Microsoft Account; existing users can retain their hotmail.com addresses
     

    Yeah, I'm aware of that - but I didn't make it clear in my post, sorry. I heard it's just the skin that's changing.

    @electronerd said:

    You used to be able to switch back to the Hotmail UI, but I think they turned that off a while ago.

    I heard there was a transition phase permitting you to switch back, but then at some point the older hotmail UI was to be deprecated so there's no going back.

    Looks like we've missed the window to bounce between the two. But I'm fast getting the idea it's "hop forwards or hop off - you choose"

    Ta for feedback, either way.


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