Do you feel trapped?
I don’t know about you guys, but I gave up on Hotmail a looooong time ago because it became a spam-infested stomping ground. I remember reading the news quite a few years back that one of its departing developers “borrowed” (er stole) the company’s entire email address database. And thanks to that wonderful concept of capitalism, he sold it to a spamming company for mucho dinero.

The good ol‘ days
I remember when I was studying Computer Science in the mid-90s, and literally got hooked on HoTMaiL. Yes, that was it’s name back then – short for HTML mail. Get it? Back then, Hotmail was fast as hell thanks to its use of the FreeBSD (not Linux!) operating system on all its servers. For those in the know, FreeBSD is regarded as the best web hosting O/S on the planet because of its blazing-fast speeds. Yahoo, arguably its biggest user and a major financial donor, can attest to this.

History repeats itself
Once Microsoft paid Sabeer Bhatia (gasp!) US $400 million in 1998 for the rights to acquire Hotmail, everything slowly went downhill since Microsoft management wanted to migrate everything over to their baby, virus-infested Windows.

{Hello, you wanna freaking mail service used by millions to run on…Windows? Okay, intermission time…I gotta puke at that thought. BRB}

Boy did Sabeer (see pic) ever luck out – at the right time – long before the Dot Com bust. Now he’s a legend in his native home, India. The lucky bastard! Paul Graham would’ve been proud of him for sure.

To make a long story short, Hotmail users “back then” were able to download all of their messages into any POP3 email client (ie. Outlook Express, Eudora, Pegasus Mail, Thunderbird, etc.). Actually, Microsoft used this honey in order to get Outlook and Outlook Express into the mainstream, and it was a slam dunk idea. Well, that’s all history now unless you’re a paid subscriber. In fact, Yahoo did the same thing, too, for all its freeloading users like yours truly. Et tu, Yahoo? :-)

Thankfully, I’m now with GMail, and although I can download all of my messages to my PC for FREE, I’ve never felt the need to do it. Heck, why would I do that considering the Big G (er Google) gives me a whopping 2,703 Megabytes (2.7 Gigs) of space? Yes, you heard me…2.7 Gigabytes of mail storage space on the most powerful grid computer network on earth. I don’t even think I’ll use 800 Megs, and I’m a bloody heavy email user. Click the image below to see how much storage space I have left in GMail. See, I wasn’t kidding around.

How to download your Hotmail messages
* Step 1: Grab the last free version and more info of Hotmail Popper from this page: Download (1005 kB)

If you get it from Boolean.Ca, then you’ll have to fork out US $17 after the software expires. Plus, you’ll only be able to download 100 messages; then the software craps out on you. It’s up to you!

* Step 2: Install it as per the instructions (screen shots) here:

Conclusion
Well, that’s it for now! Again, if you really want an amazing web/POP3 email experience, just go with GMail. After all, you do use Google a lot, right? So you already know that it’s backed by a rock-solid company with great ideas.

By the way, 321Download.com has an excellent list of the last versions of many popular programs before they went commercial with a cripple-ware version. I suggest you take a peek at their Last Freeware pages to see if there’s anything that might be of interest to you.

Oh, since we’re talking about email here, I have another piece of information for you. Since using email and the Internet implies using anti-virus and firewall software to protect your PC, I figure this ZD Net review might come in handy. Why? Because there are tons of Norton Antivirus users out there.

Take a peek at this: Why you should ditch Norton AntiVirus.
I also suggest you take a look at this recent blog entry of mine where I talk about my recent ordeal dealing with Norton Antivirus all the way down here in Nairobi, Kenya: Tip: Free AVG, Outpost firewall rocks.

Happy computing!

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Related links:

• Hotmail‘s Creator Is Starting Up Again, and Again, and… - Sabeer Bhatia talks about the new ventures that are keeping him busy since fleeing Microsoft
• Mr Hotmail talks about globalisation
• Failure is a badge of success for ‘Hotmail man’
  
• by Paul Graham: How to Make Wealth | How to Start a Startup| Ideas for Startups
  
• Download your Yahoo Mail for FREE:
  YPOPs! is an application that provides POP3 access to Yahoo! Mail. It is available o­n the Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac platforms.