Gmail vs Outlook
Three or four times a year I get a virus so nasty I have to wipe out my entire system and start over from scratch. This has gotten to be more than just a minor annoyance; it’s gotten to be a ritual. It’s not like I’ve planned on it and I’ve had a chance to make back-ups, and notify my team that I’ll be off line for while. No, it hits out of the blue. Sometimes I can wait a day or two with a known infected machine, sometimes I have to jump right on it and fix it right away.
The last time, it took out the top 20 programs I use the most. Outlook was the first one to go, which had the last 5 years worth of email I’ve been saving. I guess I’m quite the data pack rat, but still… you never know when you’ll want to send that hilarious joke or find that website that promises men a whole new outlook on life… er.. um… yeah, back to the post..
I make routine back ups, so not all was lost, but still some was lost. That sucks, never to be returned and taken in just a split second. Gone. Even our best data recovery techniques left me hanging.
So, this has happened roughly 3-4 times per year and having gotten used to it, I’ve learned how to be more careful. I’ve learned that backups are extremely important and automated is the only way to go.
Outlook is a great program, but not for keeping your computer safe. Outlook, Thunderbird or any other Pop mail client will pull all of your email off of the server and down on to your computer.
I never really thought about that before. I just used Outlook Express as that was the standard thing to use way back when my family got their first PC. I continued to use Outlook Express, until I realized how cool and how many features Outlook has and then I made the switch.
At least 2-4 times a year, I’ve had problems ranging from a small innocuous virus to a whoa Nellie, where’d my data go, stomp you till you cry virus that really has no sympathy for folks without a decent data back up plan.
What’s the solution? Gmail! It’s great; I leave my email on their web servers. They give me over 6 gigabytes of storage which is 3 times the space I needed for 5 years of email, they scan for viruses, I can access my email anywhere over the internet, and it’s been almost a year since I’ve had to re do my entire computer! It’s still running like a champ!
Gmail is free, fast and it’s kept me from having to re do my computer 2 or 3 times this year alone. What more could I ask for? I’ve recommended it to my family, friends and now clients. Gmail gets my full support and endorsement. I really should be paid for this… hmm…