Microsoft to charge hotmail users

[fodders]

Millions of Hotmail users face having to pay to access their messages using the Outlook e-mail program.
Microsoft says it decided to start charging for the service as it was being abused by senders of spam.

[Lord FlatHead]

mail.yahoo.com. 100MB of storage, 10MB attachments, and still free ATM.

[Arioch]

Lord FlatHead said:

mail.yahoo.com. 100MB of storage, 10MB attachments, and still free ATM.

Except you can't access it from anything but the web interface.

Which is what we're talking about.

[Job]

fodders said:

Microsoft says it decided to start charging for the service as it was being abused by senders of spam.

That makes zero sense.

[Bloodshedder]

Arioch said:

Except you can't access it from anything but the web interface.

http://yahoopops.sourceforge.net/

[S1lent]

Not to mention all the security flaws and risks of using a Yahoo Hotmail account.. But, if Microsoft starts charging, I suppose I'll end up using a Y! account.

[The Flange Peddler]

Microsoft are not starting to charge. Though unless you read the link it's obvious how you can be mislead to think that from the thread title.

They are just starting to charge if you don't use the Hotmail Web interface, and instead have your hotmail straight through to outlook or outlook express.

I'm definitely no fan of Microsoft, but the current free Hotmail product, with 250MB storage and 10MB attachments, is pretty good as far as I'm concerned.

[Snarboo]

The Article said:

Other e-mail services such as Yahoo and America Online also limit access to mail exporting tools to paid subscribers.

Surprised nobody noticed that little bit. Seems Hotmail isn't the first to use this tactic.

[darknation]

so you have to pay to use outlook 'comedy virus interface' express.

Brilliant.

[S1lent]

Good thing there's ThunderBird

[Sephiroth]

ein Internet, ein Betriebssystem, eine Welt unter Bill Gates

heh, i use my standard email account so i am not worried. I get minimal spam, if any, so i dont need seperate email. however if i did i would just fall back on my admin@mvras.org account.
Honestly i think microsoft is screwing itself. I dont hate them but i don't like them. they have done good and bad like every other company. Only time will tell.

Let us watch what is coming, i am sure we will be surprised.

Heh, i think wierd when i am druged. been horribly sick the last few days and have gone 2 days with no sleep. oh and i had been watching documentaries on hitler, the nazis and squirrels.
did you know the common grey squirrle can live for as much as 17 years? however most live around 12 years, the length of time the 3rd rich lasted.

[myk]

Makes sense, really; free MSN Hotmail is ad-financed, and you don't get ads on Outlook or OE. Plus those two programs are kind of dying with POP3 anyway... many big providers shun the protocol and using a browser's just as good for web-based e-mail.

[leileilol]

fodders said:

Millions of Hotmail users face having to pay to access their messages using the Outlook e-mail program.
Microsoft says it decided to start charging for the service as it was being abused by senders of spam.

Then again Yahoo charged others when they put an end to their free POP3 too.

[Arioch]

Bloodshedder said:

http://yahoopops.sourceforge.net/

And there's the equivalent for Hotmail out there already.

No big deal.

[Sharessa]

Good thing I never use Outlook.

[pritch]

I used to use outlook exclusively until i woke up and smelt webmail.

[Infinite Ammunition]

Heil Gmail

[SYS]

Ich bin furden!

[Goliath]

Doesn't really matter, I already pay for hotmail mainly just because I need more than the 2mb that they give you to start out.

[Sephiroth]

i dont see what people have aginst useing their standard ISP email, unless you are AOL. mine doesn't get any spam, mainly cause i dont use it on spam causeing stuff and i have entirly cut spyware out

[Arioch]

Sephiroth said:

i dont see what people have aginst useing their standard ISP email, unless you are AOL. mine doesn't get any spam, mainly cause i dont use it on spam causeing stuff and i have entirly cut spyware out

The whole point is so that you're not tied to the ISP. If you need to hop ISPs then you don't have to go through a big process on moving people to using another e-mail address to contact you.

[deathbringer]

People still use Outlook?

[spank]

On the issue of accessing Hotmail through an email client, is there any way to use Thunderbird with it? What's that piece of software Arioch mentioned?

[NiGHTMARE]

deathbringer said:

People still use Outlook?

The worst products are usually the ones which are the most commonly used. You really ought to know that by now :).

[Sharessa]

spank said:

On the issue of accessing Hotmail through an email client, is there any way to use Thunderbird with it? What's that piece of software Arioch mentioned?

No. Apparently, both Hotmail and Yahoo have things set up that prevent you from using third party e-mail clients with them. I downloaded Thunderbird and tried it with both and nether wanted to work. Since those are the only two real e-mail accounts I have, I had to delete Thunderbird in defeat. :(