In this modern era, technology is becoming more advanced day-by-day. Email is a perfect example of modern technology. Who doesn’t know about email or doesn’t use it? Certainly, every one of us knows about email and use it our daily life. Over the last two decades, email client applications have become very popular among computer users around the world. Generally, email aka electronic mail is a method of exchanging digital messages from one person to other person, a group or more recipients in just a single click. An email message doesn’t take enough time like other mediums, i.e. it can be delivered in seconds. There are many other advantages of email, therefore it has become the most popular and commonly-used medium for communication. A computer or mobile device with a proper Internet connection, that’s all you need to send and receive an email message.
Popular Email Client Applications
Emails are sent and received with the help of an email client application. An email client application is a computer program which is used to access as well as manage emails and other mailbox data. There are many popular email client applications available:
Microsoft Outlook Express
Microsoft is a popular name in computer software. Outlook Express was the first email client application of Microsoft Corporation. It is still available and people use it. It is included in Internet Explorer (from v4.0 to 6.0), and also available in Microsoft Windows (from 98 to Server 2003). Being an email and news client application, it provides users a smart emailing platform in which they can send and receive thousands of email messages. Outlook Express uses DBX folders to store email messages, and WAB (Windows Address Book) files to store contacts and their information.
Windows Mail
Microsoft Corporation provides Outlook Express in Windows XP and earlier Windows OS. But in Windows Vista, it was replaced by Windows Mail, another email and newsgroup client of Microsoft. As it is a successor to Outlook Express, it has fairly minimal changes in its user-interface. Outlook Express was/is available for many Windows operating systems, but Windows Mail is only available in Windows Vista. Windows Mail saves messages in EML format separately.
Windows Live Mail
In Windows 7, Microsoft replaced its earlier email client with the new Windows Live Mail. It is a freeware email client application that enables you to send and receive email messages. Also, you can set up multiple email accounts in Windows Live Mail that is highly compatible with Windows 7 and later versions. In Windows 8, it is a part of Windows Live Essentials suite. Like Windows Mail, it also uses EML files to store email messages and WAB (Windows Address Book) to store contacts information.
Microsoft Office Outlook
Microsoft Office Outlook is another email client application which is also known as personal information manager of Microsoft. It is a part of a well-known software suite, Microsoft Office. Besides an email application, it is also used for calendaring, task management, contact management, note taking, journal creation and web browsing. Users can use Outlook as a stand-alone application as well as with Exchange Server and SharePoint Server. MS Outlook creates an Outlook data file to store email messages and other mailbox data. This Outlook data file is known as PST or Personal Storage Table. If Outlook is connected with Exchange Server, it will create offline folders aka OST or Offline Storage Table on a local system to store all the mailbox data. Understand the difference between PST and OST. Outlook uses NK2 files to store contacts and information.
Entourage
Entourage is an email client cum personal information manager provided by Microsoft. It is available for Mac OS 8.5 and higher versions. This email client provides email, calendar, address book, task list, note list, and project manager functionality. Entourage was a part of Microsoft Office suite for Mac 2001, 2004 and 2008 (last version). Then it was replaced by Outlook for Mac in Microsoft Office for Mac 2011. It stores all the emails and other mailbox data in an Entourage database file saved with .RGE (Entourage archive file) extension.
Outlook for Mac
Microsoft also provides Outlook for Mac operating systems. The current version of Outlook for Mac is 2011. First it was used only with Exchange Servers, but now can be used as a stand-alone application. Just like MS Outlook for Windows platform, it has the same features and functionalities. The only difference between Outlook for Mac and Windows Outlook is the file format they use for storing mailbox data. OLM or Outlook for Mac data file is used for storing email messages, contacts, journals, calendar data, and other user application data.
AppleMail
The AppleMail (also known as Mail App) is an email client application available for the operating systems OS X and iOS. Like other email client applications, it also enables users to configure single as well as multiple email accounts at the same time. Additionally, it also supports connection with Microsoft Exchange Server. There are several versions of AppleMail available, such as: Mac OS X Tiger, Mac OS X Leopard, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Mac OS X Lion, OS X Mountain Lion, OS X Mavericks and OS X Yosemite.
IBM Notes
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BM Notes, formerly known as Lotus Notes, is not just an email client. It is a suite that provides business collaboration functionalities which include email, to-do-lists, address book, calendaring and scheduling, database, web server, programming etc. Unlike other software suite (i.e. Microsoft Office), IBM Notes provides all the functionalities of various components in a single front-end. The IBM Notes creates a Lotus Notes Database file to store all the business information, such as: emails and calendar data. This database file is saved in NSF or Notes Storage Facility format.
Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird is not only an email client, but also a newsgroup, news feed and chat client application provided by Mozilla Foundation. Being a free, open source and cross-platform, it is highly popular among email users around the world. This is the only email client that runs of variety of platforms including Windows, Mac OS and Linux. Like few other email clients, it also works as a personal storage manager. Mozilla Thunderbird has some unique features, like message management, junk filtering, extensions and themes and many more. It stores emails and other mailbox data in MBOX or email storage format.
