Thunderbird

Thunderbird is similar to M$ Outlook except Thunderbird runs on all platforms. There are alternatives but for starting out it's hard to go wrong with Thunderbird attached to a GMAIL account. Actually if you are just starting out then get a GMAIL account and work with it for a while. As time goes on you may want to have multiple accounts and a good set of tools for working with them and then you'll need something like Thunderbird. Imap is useful because it allows you to treat your mail account like a file system. Thunderbird is useful because you can view multiple email accounts at the same time. Combining the two together allows you to move email from one server to the next by simply dragging and dropping. This allows you to keep all your email througout the years accessible. You are no longer dependent on laborious email backups when you change broadband providers, email providers, or a particular hard disk. Thunderbird Extensions

1. OpenPGP message encryption and authentication for Thunderbird and Seamonkey.

   Enigmail adds OpenPGP message encryption and authentication to your email client. It features automatic encryption, decryption and integrated key management functionality. Enigmail requires GnuPG (www.gnupg.org) for the cryptographic functions. Note: GnuPG is not part of the installation.