Just confused a lot over this,can some help what’s the benefit of using a email client like Thunderbird or Geary ,
with Hotmail and Outlook email address. a link or could you try and explain.
Hi Harry.
Email Clients usually offer facilities not available on many web-mail services, notably local storage of emails that one can read off-line. Thunderbird allows one to automatically download/send emails from/to several email accounts so that they appear all in one place - on your computer. If your email accounts allow the use of aliases (a good idea) Thunderbird has a good alias management system so that you can receive/send mail under your aliases. There are many other facilities, too, which is probably why Thunderbird is so popular.
Hotmail is a Microsoft mail provision (I think) and Outlook is a Microsoft client (like Thunderbird). Unfortunately, Microsoft does not have a good reputation for privacy, especially since Windows 10.
Web-mail has the advantage of being always available if you can get to any computer with an internet connection and usually has simple facilities for saving emails and addresses. With the introduction of IMAP (Instant Mail Access Protocol) your emails exist both on the mail server and in your computer Inbox until you delete them.
Security is especially important with emails and it’s worth remembering that most “free” email services are not free - one is paying with one’s mail meta-data. But there are very secure, encrypted and free email services available with limited functionality. Two that I use are ProtonMail.com and Tutanota.com. The free versions do not allow the use of aliases but that’s OK for most people.
Paid-for email services are usually very cheap and provide good security. I mainly use Runbox.com and pay about 1Euro/month for encrypted mail and storage and the best customer support I’ve ever experienced. The owners are Liz and Dave.
I hope this helps.
Keith
Thank you that was a great help .
You’re welcome, Harry.