I love and use both Macs and Windows PCs but my primary computer is a Mac. So when my PowerBook went into the repair shop I was forced to my Windows PCs (at work and at home) for my everyday work for 4 days! Everyday work for me is mainly emailing, Web browsing, network troubleshooting, and referencing info I have in a notepad-like database I have. I realize that these 4 days without my Mac was a good thing. It made me realize what key programs and data I have on my Mac that I really depend on and it also forced me to become more intimately familiar with key programs like Outlook Express and Outlook.

I really like Outlook. Even in IMO (Internet Mail Only) mode, Outlook has some impressive features like integrated and full-featured calendar and contact modules, and support for IMAP. In a typical corporate environment used with Exchange Server, it boasts an incredible feature set including shared calendaring, scheduling, shared folders, and shared global and personal address books. In my opinion, its user interface is top-notch too. I much prefer how Outlook has one main window with multiple window panes (objects such as Inbox, Contacts, Calendar on the left; list of selected object's items on the top right; and detail of selected list item on bottom right) over how Eudora — and really any program on the Mac — has multiple windows that can overlap each other and get really messy. Apple's solution in Mac OS X with separate programs (never mind multiple overlapping windows!) for email (Mail.app), contacts (Address Book), and calendaring (iCal) seem to me to be a step in the wrong direction. Oh, and Palm's PocketMirror conduit that allows Palm handhelds to sync contact, calendar, notes, and to-do data with Outlook is very nice too. Microsoft's Entourage for Mac (bundled with Microsoft Office for Mac, versions 2001 and X) offers a feature-set that is the most similar to Outlook.

More time on my PCs also encouraged me to explore and have fun with these PC-only utilities:

• Rollback utilities - imagine LAN's CPR System Health Suite (ConfigSafe) and Roxio's GoBack
  
• Anti-spyware/adware utilities - Lavasoft's Ad-aware and PepiMK Software's Spybot - Search & Destroy
  
• Mediafour's MacDrive - Windows utility that allows access to Mac-formatted disks (I used it with my external FireWire/USB drives)
  

Well, despite all of this, I'm still sticking with my Mac and Eudora (for now, at least)!