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You don't need MSN software to use MSN for email, just request your email be delivered via their pop servers. The only catch is that it uses their proprietary secure login scheme that (at least until very recently) only worked with Outlook Express.

That said, the service is pretty crappy anyway. The MSN software only enhances that crappiness. A few years back, our telco who has been our ISP started migrating their customers to MSN (albeit at a discounted rate). I had suffered that for a few years. Finally last week Qwest emailed me to tell me the DSL service that I have long awaited was available at my locale (right in town). I signed up that day and got a nifty modem/wireless router combo too. We got set up without too much difficulty and are enjoying it immensely. And the ISP is no longer MSN. The telco's marketing still points customers in that direction, but with some snooping around we see that virtually any ISP is available with the DSL service. We selected the telco's own basic internet service, 7 bucks a month on top of the 28.00 charge for the 1.5 down 1.0 up DSL line. That's ten bucks cheaper than if we had gone with MSN, and the bare operating system provides all the software needed to get online. My wife was happy to uninstall the crappy MSN 9 software from her PC, and I had never installed it on mine.

And oh yeah about Hotmail - I have had an account at Hotmail since before Microsoft had it - back when it was good. I also have a couple Yahoo email accounts and my favorite, Netscape email. There are a bunch of other ones out there, but those two, at least, don't try to put spyware crap on the computer, and at least for me, don't seem to generate popups when used through IE, and I have never gotten spam on them, even the throwaway Yahoo one I use when crawling in the underbelly of the 'net. Can't say the same for Hotmail or MSN email either one. Never got as much spam as I got with my now former MSN email account.

Dave in Eugene