there's an Outlook behind me, and it's getting smaller and smaller ...

Okay, I did it. I migrated my home email from MS-Outlook Express to Mozilla Thunderbird. And so far, I'm generally a happy camper.

The only downside so far is that Thunderbird didn't even try to migrate my various filters, and there are a lot of them. I bopped over to Bugzilla and saw that it's a known limitation, so (since bugs often take years to be evaluated) I'm adding filters as email hits my inbox. In a couple weeks, that should be done. For now, it's simply an annoyance.

Thunderbird's the email client I used at work most often (on both my PowerBook and a SunRay), so this standardization will allow my atrophying brain cells another less thing to consider as I live out the few remaining years of my life.

In addition to standardizing on one interface, Thunderbird has lots of Extensions so that I can customize it as needed (although historically I haven't gone overboard). It's just nice to know it can be done, unlike Outlook Express which has always been the poor (free) stepchild of MS-Outlook.