Many people are aware that there is a great open source tool built for email called thunderbird. Thunderbird works as the perfect replacement for Outlook Express (which comes with Windows). Thunderbird has more features, better speed and reliability, better interaction with IMAP servers, but there is still one major type of problems that will prevent it from gaining market share. It is not compatible with Microsoft Exchange, and it does not implement Outlook features such as Calendar, Meeting Requests, or Tasks. Living in a Microsoft world, these deficiencies prevent it from being used as a valid Microsoft Outlook replacement. Emphasis needs to be moved from the Thunderbird project itself, which works great for everything it is intended for, and moved towards extensions or features that will allow it to compete, and meet all of the needs of email users.
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