Microsoft makes Outlook Express U-turn

Silicon.com ^ | August 15, 2003

[HAL9000]

Just days after announcing that it planned to halt development on Outlook Express, Microsoft has been forced to change its position following internal confusion and an outcry from customers.

As reported earlier this week on silicon.com Microsoft had planned to stop product development on Outlook Express, which forms part of the Internet Explorer code bundled with consumer versions of Windows.

At the time Dan Leach, Office product manager, said: "The technology doesn't go away, but no new work is being done."

Under that vision, consumers would have been directed towards the company's MSN software, while businesses would be encouraged to purchase Office, which includes the full Outlook client.

However, Leach has now distanced himself from his original comments, claiming that while Microsoft had originally planned to halt new work on Outlook Express, the situation has since changed.

"I sat down with the Windows team today, and they tell me my comments were inaccurate," Leach said Friday. "Outlook Express was in sustain engineering, but customers asked for continued improvement, and we are doing that. Microsoft will continue its innovation around the email experience in Windows."

Leach blamed communication problems for the confusion.

"The Outlook Express team has been in the process of making this change known inside Microsoft," he said. "They just hadn't reached me before I left for Asia."

The lack of internal communication underlines the growing challenge faced by Microsoft as it attempts to co-ordinate software development activities over an increasingly diverse range of markets.

[HAL9000]

Outlook Express is like the Idi Amin of email software. It just won't die.

[B Knotts]

Outlook Express is like the Idi Amin of email software. It just won't die.

Quote of the day nominee!

[Uncle Hal]

When I read these original remarks by this guy I thought something did not make sense.

[July 4th]

Microsoft Outlook: Popular e-mail software and even more popular virus propagator.

[EternalVigilance]

Oh, you mean Outbreak?

[Orangedog]

Are there any other email programs besides the welcome mat for script-kiddies more commonly known as MS Outlook? I'd like to get that crap off of my hard drive.

[Richard Kimball]

Leach blamed communication problems for the confusion.

Okay, somebody help me with an ironic comment here.

[js1138]

We'll see how the next release of Linux fares, since persons unknown had their way with the source for several months. (Undetected tampering with the Linux development servers.)

[DeFault User]

"I sat down with the Windows team today, and they tell me my comments were inaccurate,"

Translation: "I got my chain yanked, but good."

[Knitebane]

We'll see how the next release of Linux fares, since persons unknown had their way with the source for several months. (Undetected tampering with the Linux development servers.)

You know, if you're going to troll, you could at least get your facts straight.

The hacked site wasn't "the Linux development servers," it was the Free Software Foundation FTP site. It houses no Linux core source code, only code for GNU userland tools.

Additionally, the problem has already been addressed by checking MD5 sums. There have been no reports of trojaned files on the FSF FTP site.

[isom35]

what improvements does this app need? it does what it is designed to do right?

[Knitebane]

Are there any other email programs besides the welcome mat for script-kiddies more commonly known as MS Outlook? I'd like to get that crap off of my hard drive.

The Bat.

Pine for Windows.

Eudora

Thunderbird - The Mozilla Mail project

Any of these are a replacement for the email component of Outlook Express, most of them are superior to OE.

To replace the newsreader portion, try Forte Agent or Forte FreeAgent

[js1138]

Actually I was searching for a troll being hammered, but this was the best I could do:

Nevertheless, I suspect the site that was hacked was not running IIS.

[Joe Bonforte]

We see this kind of faux pas from Microsoft all the time (excuse my French). The company is large and the various parts are rather disconnected from one another. For those of us who deal with Microsoft on a daily basis, we see contradictory messages all the time.

The funny part is that the anti-Microsoft folks somehow simultaneously hold these two ideas in their head:

1) Microsoft marketing people are idiots who often can't get their story straight and send out contradictory messages.

2) Microsoft has lousy products and only succeeds because it has great marketing.

Take your choice, but I don't see how you can believe both of these.

[TomServo]

Outlook Express is like the Idi Amin of email software. It just won't die.

Then why use it?

[Knitebane]

what improvements does this app need? it does what it is designed to do right?

Well, if it was designed to let script kiddies trash your machine, then it does it well.

As a mail client, it's strictly average.

It needs to be much more secure than it is. Microsoft seems to have other security concerns than it's give-away email client at the moment, though.

[Califelephant]

Leach blamed communication problems for the confusion.

> Okay, somebody help me with an ironic comment here.

Someone sent Mr. Leach a message, using Outlook Express, but for some reason he never got it.

[B Knotts]

You are mistaken. That was the GNU FTP site, not the Linux kernel site. Don't spread FUD.

[zeugma]

You might try reading this, which is a detailed description of what happened and how it was/is being corrected. I seriously doubt anything widely used that was compromised will stay that way for long.

I suppose we can expect FUD about this for years though.