{"slug": "microsoft-outlook", "name": "Microsoft Outlook", "category": "communication", "category_name": "Email and chat", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 32, "warners": 19, "score": -11.181, "rising": 0.02, "first": "2025-11-02", "latest": "2026-10-26", "why": "This is why I use installable PWAs wherever possible. On my Android phone right now, the Outlook PWA uses 281kB.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 9, "compare": 1, "warn": 19}, "spark": [1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "This is why I use installable PWAs wherever possible. On my Android phone right now, the Outlook PWA uses 281kB.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Outlook", "Microsoft Outlook", "Outlook.com"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 790080720, "item_id": 49380045, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49380045", "by": "prepend", "date": "2026-08-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019ve got every email going back 20+ years instantly searchable in outlook", "excerpt": "I use a git-generated static site that has good search, so if people want to find stuff before asking that\u2019s the go-to. Otherwise, I can search email quite effectively. And oddly, its one of the few things Office Copilot is goos at. I don\u2019t email is a collaboration tool. It\u2019s an information sharing tool and maybe workflow. Just today I had to email out to like 20 people a data call with a couple paragraphs of instruc", "context": "", "use_case": "email search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Don't Paste the AI, please"}, {"id": 744262336, "item_id": 46516396, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46516396", "by": "ramsj", "date": "2026-01-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is why I use installable PWAs wherever possible. On my Android phone right now, the Outlook PWA uses 281kB.", "excerpt": "This is why I use installable PWAs wherever possible. On my Android phone right now, the Outlook PWA uses 281kB. You still get notifications, but I haven't measured if data usage is higher.", "context": "", "use_case": "email on Android as PWA", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why is the Gmail app 700 MB?"}, {"id": 742234000, "item_id": 46389625, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46389625", "by": "jonathanlydall", "date": "2025-12-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For at least 10 years now Outlook.com and Microsoft accounts have supported multiple aliases.", "excerpt": "I wonder if they\u2019ll make it work like Outlook.com\u2019s support for multiple email addresses on the same account which they made a fully first class feature. Although I primarily use a Gmail for my personal email, I still have a Hotmail address from the 90s. For at least 10 years now Outlook.com and Microsoft accounts have supported multiple aliases. This has allowed me to keep my old cringey box name at Hotmail address,", "context": "", "use_case": "email with multiple aliases", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 802190496, "item_id": 50136906, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50136906", "by": "jhbadger", "date": "2026-10-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "only allow Microsoft's own protocol to enforce Outlook use and disabled IMAP access.", "excerpt": "A lot of places claim things for \"security\" and violating them is grounds for firing because truthfully or not, they claim circumventing them is exposing data. We used to be able to choose our e-mail client as they had IMAP access. A few years ago they decided to only allow Microsoft's own protocol to enforce Outlook use and disabled IMAP access.", "context": "employee whose company forced Outlook", "use_case": "employer-mandated email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Teams is a red flag"}, {"id": 801368769, "item_id": 50085548, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50085548", "by": "setopt", "date": "2026-10-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I did however have plenty of issues with search when syncing my work Outlook email via Mail.app", "excerpt": "Not sure what the difference is then. I use iCloud Mail and didn\u2019t have problems with search on iOS or MacOS, I did however have plenty of issues with search when syncing my work Outlook email via Mail.app, so I assumed there was something special about iCloud (similarly to how Mail.app offers push email only for iCloud and FastMail). I\u2019ve imported decades of email into my account so it\u2019s not about a small email volu", "context": "", "use_case": "work email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 795739808, "item_id": 49733738, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49733738", "by": "cyanydeez", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Expect it's going to crash several times as microsoft continues to inject it's AI everywhere attitude.", "excerpt": "company just switched to the cloud outlook. Expect it's going to crash several times as microsoft continues to inject it's AI everywhere attitude.", "context": "employee whose company moved to cloud Outlook", "use_case": "company email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Can we stop with the uptime percentages?"}, {"id": 794055905, "item_id": 49628494, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49628494", "by": "ryanm101", "date": "2026-09-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "When we migrated to Outlook there were non stop server side issues.", "excerpt": "The worst thing about notes was its ui revamp in 8. It was heavy and slow, I tended to run classic ui. Yes f5 was an issue but only until you did it a couple of times then you remembered. It was funny I recall never having much to do on the domino server, and even the client was pretty stable. When we migrated to Outlook there were non stop server side issues. The fact it had a built in DB was really useful for exten", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "Lotus Notes", "story": "Lotus Notes and the dangers of starting from scratch"}]}], "who": [{"by": "rf15", "context": "European insurance/gov company", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50134928", "date": "2026-10-17"}, {"by": "jillesvangurp", "context": "runs a small company", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49941162", "date": "2026-10-03"}, {"by": "xp84", "context": "recently moved from Google Workspace + Mac to Microsoft + Windows", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49661869", "date": "2026-09-11"}, {"by": "joeyguerra", "context": "consultant with a client", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49258808", "date": "2026-08-11"}, {"by": "zoom6628", "context": "enterprise worker", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46540473", "date": "2026-01-08"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["email", "work email", "email search", "employer-mandated email client", "mobile email via browser", "local email client with searchable database"], "compared": [{"slug": "lotus-notes", "name": "Lotus Notes", "co": 3, "switched_from": 2, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "google-workspace", "name": "Google Workspace", "co": 1, "switched_from": 2, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "thunderbird", "name": "Thunderbird", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "slack", "name": "Slack", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "gmail", "name": "Gmail", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "github", "name": "GitHub", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "microsoft-teams", "name": "Microsoft Teams", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48584207", "title": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50130228", "title": "Microsoft Teams is a red flag", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50072913", "title": "Thunderbird for iOS", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49623937", "title": "Lotus Notes and the dangers of starting from scratch", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50248055", "title": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49927747", "title": "Sites in ChatGPT", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"warn": 4, "recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {"warn": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"warn": 2}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"warn": 3}, "2026-07": {"warn": 2}, "2026-08": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 2, "compare": 1, "warn": 2}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 4, "warn": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804037521, "item_id": 50252345, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50252345", "by": "xp84", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Open on my desktop right now: Slack, Outlook, Zoom, Windows Terminal, Edge, Claude, Obsidian, whatever the Windows image viewer is called, Cursor, and VS Code", "excerpt": "> I use lots Oh really? I, sadly, use nearly none. Open on my desktop right now: Slack, Outlook, Zoom, Windows Terminal, Edge, Claude, Obsidian, whatever the Windows image viewer is called, Cursor, and VS Code. Only the last 2 have menu bars. And I can\u2019t be certain that I didn\u2019t dig through the preferences of one or both of them when I first installed them to tell them to knock off the bullshit and give me back the m", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11"}, {"id": 802190496, "item_id": 50136906, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50136906", "by": "jhbadger", "date": "2026-10-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "only allow Microsoft's own protocol to enforce Outlook use and disabled IMAP access.", "excerpt": "A lot of places claim things for \"security\" and violating them is grounds for firing because truthfully or not, they claim circumventing them is exposing data. We used to be able to choose our e-mail client as they had IMAP access. A few years ago they decided to only allow Microsoft's own protocol to enforce Outlook use and disabled IMAP access.", "context": "employee whose company forced Outlook", "use_case": "employer-mandated email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Teams is a red flag"}, {"id": 802158849, "item_id": 50134928, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50134928", "by": "rf15", "date": "2026-10-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "we use Teams, Outlook, Sharepoint as side products of Office", "excerpt": "In our european company (insurance/gov space) we use Teams, Outlook, Sharepoint as side products of Office, largely to get the official editing tools for the documents our clients provide. Depending on who you are in our company, you are using either Mac or Windows, although we are slowly shifting to OpenSUSE. Azure and GitHub are completely out of the question, and OneDrive is only used in the context of Teams/Share", "context": "European insurance/gov company", "use_case": "work email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Teams is a red flag"}, {"id": 801368769, "item_id": 50085548, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50085548", "by": "setopt", "date": "2026-10-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I did however have plenty of issues with search when syncing my work Outlook email via Mail.app", "excerpt": "Not sure what the difference is then. I use iCloud Mail and didn\u2019t have problems with search on iOS or MacOS, I did however have plenty of issues with search when syncing my work Outlook email via Mail.app, so I assumed there was something special about iCloud (similarly to how Mail.app offers push email only for iCloud and FastMail). I\u2019ve imported decades of email into my account so it\u2019s not about a small email volu", "context": "", "use_case": "work email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 801300659, "item_id": 50081291, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50081291", "by": "SoftTalker", "date": "2026-10-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "On the go I use a web browser on my phone for gmail or outlook.", "excerpt": "On linux I read my mail in emacs, and use notmuch for searching/indexing. It's amazing. On the go I use a web browser on my phone for gmail or outlook. No apps. I try to minimize doing email on my phone because it's so awkward to type.", "context": "", "use_case": "mobile email via browser", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 799058593, "item_id": 49941162, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49941162", "by": "jillesvangurp", "date": "2026-10-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "what Thunderbird, Outlook, etc. did a quarter century ago", "excerpt": "The big picture here is that LLMs using APIs to get into information stores works but is stupidly slow. Email is a good example. You can hookup gmail or whatever to codex or claude and it's great. But it takes ages for it to dig through your inbox and that involves doing a lot of API calls. Most SAAS tools are about gate keeping data via APIs. You need to break open those silos to get to the data. A CRM is just a con", "context": "runs a small company", "use_case": "local email client with searchable database", "switched_from": "", "story": "Sites in ChatGPT"}, {"id": 795739808, "item_id": 49733738, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49733738", "by": "cyanydeez", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Expect it's going to crash several times as microsoft continues to inject it's AI everywhere attitude.", "excerpt": "company just switched to the cloud outlook. Expect it's going to crash several times as microsoft continues to inject it's AI everywhere attitude.", "context": "employee whose company moved to cloud Outlook", "use_case": "company email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Can we stop with the uptime percentages?"}, {"id": 794589904, "item_id": 49661869, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49661869", "by": "xp84", "date": "2026-09-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I just use the Web because it's the least weird and somehow faster than the new desktop app", "excerpt": "Having just switched from Google Workspace + Mac to all-Microsoft + Windows, it's been so difficult adjusting. I can choose between two desktop versions of Outlook or the Web, and I just use the Web because it's the least weird and somehow faster than the new desktop app (which is just the PWA one anyway). But I still have to open a modal just because I dragged a meeting from one time to another. This version of Outl", "context": "recently moved from Google Workspace + Mac to Microsoft + Windows", "use_case": "work email and calendar", "switched_from": "Google Workspace", "story": "Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin"}, {"id": 794055905, "item_id": 49628494, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49628494", "by": "ryanm101", "date": "2026-09-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "When we migrated to Outlook there were non stop server side issues.", "excerpt": "The worst thing about notes was its ui revamp in 8. It was heavy and slow, I tended to run classic ui. Yes f5 was an issue but only until you did it a couple of times then you remembered. It was funny I recall never having much to do on the domino server, and even the client was pretty stable. When we migrated to Outlook there were non stop server side issues. The fact it had a built in DB was really useful for exten", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "Lotus Notes", "story": "Lotus Notes and the dangers of starting from scratch"}, {"id": 793991937, "item_id": 49624496, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49624496", "by": "orthoxerox", "date": "2026-09-09", "stance": "compare", "quote": "greatly preferred it to Outlook", "excerpt": "I used Lotus Notes in the 00s and 10s and greatly preferred it to Outlook. The full featured one, not the OWA version. Yes, the UI was clunky, but it was quick. It was McMaster-Carr quick. The mail client was never a barrier between you and your emails. These days I miss Outlook, as the new web-based solution we replaced it with is even worse.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "Lotus Notes", "story": "Lotus Notes and the dangers of starting from scratch"}, {"id": 793518947, "item_id": 49594934, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49594934", "by": "mikaTheThird", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "many apps I use nowadays are on the web, Figma, Canva, google docs, outlook", "excerpt": "Not sure about goverment requirements, but many apps I use nowadays are on the web, Figma, Canva, google docs, outlook and so on. There is not much need for a dedicated OS for most users.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers"}, {"id": 790080720, "item_id": 49380045, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49380045", "by": "prepend", "date": "2026-08-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019ve got every email going back 20+ years instantly searchable in outlook", "excerpt": "I use a git-generated static site that has good search, so if people want to find stuff before asking that\u2019s the go-to. Otherwise, I can search email quite effectively. And oddly, its one of the few things Office Copilot is goos at. I don\u2019t email is a collaboration tool. It\u2019s an information sharing tool and maybe workflow. Just today I had to email out to like 20 people a data call with a couple paragraphs of instruc", "context": "", "use_case": "email search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Don't Paste the AI, please"}, {"id": 788140928, "item_id": 49258808, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49258808", "by": "joeyguerra", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "But they use Microsoft. So outlook and exchange.", "excerpt": "I was going to leave no feedback, which is feedback. But no feedback is the absolute worst. The technical implementation sounds cool. But I\u2019m trying to imagine scenarios for the team emails with the Cloudflare hosting requirement. My current client has a team inbox (accounts payable). But they use Microsoft. So outlook and exchange. I love Cloudflare, but in my experience have never seen it used more than for routing", "context": "consultant with a client", "use_case": "team inbox for accounts payable", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: HQBase \u2013 team email that runs in your Cloudflare account"}, {"id": 786710321, "item_id": 49169395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169395", "by": "mjpa86", "date": "2026-08-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Proton's performance is terrible, as is Outlook, not to mention it's search that just doesn't work.", "excerpt": "Is there a decent alternative to gmail that works seemlessly on android? Proton's performance is terrible, as is Outlook, not to mention it's search that just doesn't work. Unless I've misread it, this will stop people using their own domain on gmail and using an external mail server to send from gmail using their own domain right?", "context": "", "use_case": "email on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gmail will end send-as support from third-party email addresses"}, {"id": 785894816, "item_id": 49118426, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49118426", "by": "annzabelle", "date": "2026-07-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I've got two versions of Outlook on my computer, neither of which is as quick to load as Thunderbird was 20 years ago.", "excerpt": "I thought Google was a mess until I started working at a Microsoft shop for the first time. Boy it's astonishing. I've got two versions of Outlook on my computer, neither of which is as quick to load as Thunderbird was 20 years ago. My team uses Azure DevOps for our git forge, which is somehow a completely different product than GitHub. There are multiple versions of Planner in Teams, where the free version's feature", "context": "works at a Microsoft shop", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots"}, {"id": 782378737, "item_id": 48898671, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48898671", "by": "Markoff", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Microsoft doesn't provide any way to download all your emails from outlook.com in one way to back them up", "excerpt": "related - recently I learned Microsoft doesn't provide any way to download all your emails from outlook.com in one way to back them up, so Thunderbird was the tool I used to create backup still can't comprehend how is this legal in EU, Google at least provide takeout", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird Desktop settings research: what we learned from your feedback"}, {"id": 777784576, "item_id": 48611536, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48611536", "by": "codethief", "date": "2026-06-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "How people voluntarily pay for this crap is beyond me.", "excerpt": "> Bonus points for it running fine on Linux, too. I haven't really been able to use outlook.office.com in anything but Edge, which on my Windows machine automatically authenticates with M365. In other browsers I regularly get stuck in an auth redirect loop between different Microsoft domains when I open the site. Sometimes it helps to clear all cookies and re-login (which is a real pain with 2FA and all) but it only ", "context": "forced to use it by a client; Linux user", "use_case": "email at work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly"}, {"id": 777452608, "item_id": 48590788, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48590788", "by": "MBCook", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Outlook doesn\u2019t.", "excerpt": "My company recently switched from Google Suite to Office 365. Both are web apps. It\u2019s NIGHT AND DAY. Google did everything instantly. Outlook doesn\u2019t. This morning Outlook decided to spin for 30+ seconds (at which point I gave up) showing a folder. I get a modal pop-up telling me I have to \u201crefresh\u201d teams multiple times a day. Search always fails the first time. Always. Then it works. Some. I agree. It\u2019s not web tech", "context": "company switched from Google Suite to Office 365", "use_case": "work email", "switched_from": "Google Workspace", "story": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly"}, {"id": 777424400, "item_id": 48589025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589025", "by": "cik", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Dear Lord, how has the software gotten this much worse in 19 years?", "excerpt": "This year, for the first time since 2006 I've have Outlook and friends in my life. I run Linux, so naturally I turned to firefox.. Not a win. Fair, I use Chrome only for these products. Dear Lord, how has the software gotten this much worse in 19 years? I thought that Thunderbird was bloated and awful... until I tried Outlook, in a browser, on Linux. Now, the Thunderbird experience is shockingly pleasurable, compared", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "work email in browser", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly"}, {"id": 763488209, "item_id": 47718013, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47718013", "by": "lilyterry", "date": "2026-04-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "This is a known Outlook pain point it's notoriously sensitive to network configuration", "excerpt": "This is a known Outlook pain point it's notoriously sensitive to network configuration, especially on high-latency or intermittent connections. I have been using Emclient past two years for my business, works so much better", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Artemis computer running two instances of MS outlook; they can't figure out why"}, {"id": 762046176, "item_id": 47627886, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47627886", "by": "barelysapient", "date": "2026-04-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The number of times I've gotten caught in an auth loop where I enter again and again my creds + tfa", "excerpt": "Is it just me or does this describe most of Microsoft software at the moment? I tried to sign into my personal microsoft account to setup an oauth flow and I was greated by an infinity repeating error dialog about some internal service that had failed. At work, I use outlook. The number of times I've gotten caught in an auth loop where I enter again and again my creds + tfa only for the screen to flicker and start al", "context": "", "use_case": "work email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Decisions that eroded trust in Azure \u2013 by a former Azure Core engineer"}, {"id": 750880465, "item_id": 46930029, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46930029", "by": "thepuppet33r", "date": "2026-02-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Outlook start deleting all of his emails on loading Outlook after a minor update", "excerpt": "Everyone complains about one little update breaking your PC, or random things not working, but my Windows 11 laptop for work has been a nightmare, too. I'm always terrified to let them install the latest version update as it has done everything from break all my taskbar shortcuts to make my computer blue screen on boot. My fingerprint reader didn't work on it until I manually installed the fingerprint driver. My frie", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "I went back to Linux and it was a mistake"}, {"id": 748748496, "item_id": 46796781, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46796781", "by": "chris_wot", "date": "2026-01-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the new Outlook is universally despised", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been working at a school that uses a mix of Surfacebooks, HP Elitebooks and MacBook Air M2s (now migrating everyone to M4s!). I used to prefer Windows for work. After the absolutely abysmal performance using a SurfaceBook Pro, never again. I\u2019ve never had to deal with such slow performance in my life. I literally cannot get work done. Staff with Windows have constant problems, updates take forever, reboots aren\u2019t", "context": "works at a school", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux"}, {"id": 746923089, "item_id": 46682693, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46682693", "by": "plmpsu", "date": "2026-01-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "who even knows if Microsoft Outlook for macOS even has a functional product team", "excerpt": "As opposed to the subpar software quality produced these days by the big tech companies (who even knows if Microsoft Outlook for macOS even has a functional product team), JetBrains have been continuously delivering new features and innovations in their products in ways which make my work and life better and easier. I have been using JetBrains products since 2003, and it's rare to encounter such a long-term commitmen", "context": "", "use_case": "email client on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "25 Years of IntelliJ Idea"}, {"id": 744647569, "item_id": 46540473, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46540473", "by": "zoom6628", "date": "2026-01-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "even those of use locked away in enterprise fiefdoms with Outlook can make use of pinned messages", "excerpt": "As a lifelong procrastinator this article reads like \"that other Napoleon\" aka Eisenhower and his \"delegate\" for anything neither important nor urgent. I use it when I'm one of several recipients in emails To: address. Other responders have also talked about Google inbox which I never used but even those of use locked away in enterprise fiefdoms with Outlook can make use of pinned messages (same as starting in Google", "context": "enterprise worker", "use_case": "email management", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Napoleon Technique: Postponing Things to Increase Productivity"}, {"id": 744398161, "item_id": 46524885, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46524885", "by": "drw85", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "MS Outlook has switched from their native code to a WebView inside a wrapper and that means we're back in the 90s when it comes to email.", "excerpt": "I think this applies to almost all modern software. Apple Mail automatically adds calendar entries from attachments in my junk mail to my calendar. I get tons of spam/phishing mails with appointments attached that i now manually have to delete from my calendar all the time. There is no dedicated setting to disable this, according to Apple support, deactivating Siri integration inside calendar and mail app settings wi", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "All of Apple's services are abysmal"}, {"id": 744262336, "item_id": 46516396, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46516396", "by": "ramsj", "date": "2026-01-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is why I use installable PWAs wherever possible. On my Android phone right now, the Outlook PWA uses 281kB.", "excerpt": "This is why I use installable PWAs wherever possible. On my Android phone right now, the Outlook PWA uses 281kB. You still get notifications, but I haven't measured if data usage is higher.", "context": "", "use_case": "email on Android as PWA", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why is the Gmail app 700 MB?"}, {"id": 743696931, "item_id": 46481058, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46481058", "by": "lkglglgllm", "date": "2026-01-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Local outlook was also too buggy in windows, I ended up running the web version.", "excerpt": "Heavily invested in Microsoft tech, but not using windows. At all. Couldn\u2019t be happier. Due to word being too buggy, I switched to libre office in windows. Local outlook was also too buggy in windows, I ended up running the web version. Switched to vscode b/c VS was to buggy and slow. Teams works better in macos. Web version of teams is ok in Linux, you don\u2019t want to run the native app in windows, it\u2019s a resource hog", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop"}, {"id": 742234000, "item_id": 46389625, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46389625", "by": "jonathanlydall", "date": "2025-12-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For at least 10 years now Outlook.com and Microsoft accounts have supported multiple aliases.", "excerpt": "I wonder if they\u2019ll make it work like Outlook.com\u2019s support for multiple email addresses on the same account which they made a fully first class feature. Although I primarily use a Gmail for my personal email, I still have a Hotmail address from the 90s. For at least 10 years now Outlook.com and Microsoft accounts have supported multiple aliases. This has allowed me to keep my old cringey box name at Hotmail address,", "context": "", "use_case": "email with multiple aliases", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address"}, {"id": 739921857, "item_id": 46245116, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46245116", "by": "gortok", "date": "2025-12-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the mobile version of Gmail produces different results than the mobile Outlook app than the desktop version of Gmail, and all of them are pretty terrible at search", "excerpt": "My biggest complaints about search come from day-to-day uses: I use search in my email pretty heavily, and I\u2019m most interested in specific words in the email; and when those emails are from specific folks or a specific domain. But, the mobile version of Gmail produces different results than the mobile Outlook app than the desktop version of Gmail, and all of them are pretty terrible at search as it pertains to email.", "context": "heavy email search user", "use_case": "email search", "switched_from": "", "story": "From text to token: How tokenization pipelines work"}, {"id": 736825745, "item_id": 46051609, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46051609", "by": "andyjohnson0", "date": "2025-11-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I mostly live in Visual Studio and Outlook/Teams.", "excerpt": "Single AOC 27\" UHD monitor on my desktop Windows system at home. I use multiple desktops for context switching. No gaming, just a bit of dev and photo stuff. At work, a couple of Dell 27\" UHD monitors attached to my Windows laptop via DP ports on a dock. Single desktop as I have plenty of screen space. I mostly live in Visual Studio and Outlook/Teams. No complaints about either - all works pretty well.", "context": "", "use_case": "work email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What is your monitor setup?"}, {"id": 735747921, "item_id": 45984245, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45984245", "by": "richx", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I like Thunderbird, it\u2019s a great tool for private use. One killer feature I always missed (not sure if it exists today by default in Thunderbird), is the great calendar integration of outlook. I use the calendar a lot, during work but also to organize our family. It\u2019s super important for me to able to send invites to co workers and my wife :-)", "context": "", "use_case": "calendar and invites", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support"}, {"id": 732655728, "item_id": 45790983, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45790983", "by": "snowwrestler", "date": "2025-11-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "there is no MS setting to prevent these email reactions from going external", "excerpt": "We use MS365 at work and colleagues \u201creact\u201d in Outlook with thumbs-up to my emails sometimes. Fine, I guess it is a lightweight way to signal support or agreement. Not too different from reactions in Teams or Slack. BUT\u2026 there is a keyboard shortcut to do it, apparently, that is not too far from my typical typing pattern. Because sometimes I end up sending a thumbs-up reaction email when I did not mean to. This is in", "context": "", "use_case": "work email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stop 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header (2024)"}]}