In the first few rollercoaster years of the Internet ? long ago, far away, like around 1995 ? there were any number of competing e-mail applications. Windows was ahead of the Macintosh OS in ?bundling? a browser (Internet Explorer) and a basic e-mail client (Outlook Express), but considering the number of low- and no-cost applications for both Mac and Windows, this did not seem to matter too much.

Today, it's quite different. Retail e-mail programs like Eudora are fading fast, and both Mac OS X and Windows (XP and Vista) include excellent, free browsers and e-mail applications. There are still enough different people working in enough different ways to support a variety of tools and approaches, however, so we've assembled what you need to know so you can go about choosing the best e-mail client for your particular situation.

Bundled goodies

The built-in tools are very good on both the Mac and the PC side. Mac's potent Mail application is highly customizable, works flawlessly with both POP and IMAP mail accounts, uses new ?smart folder? technology and integrates seamlessly with other Mac apps like Address Book and iCal.

Microsoft has made Outlook Express a fairly powerful version of its full-blown parent application, Outlook. It is more than capable of handling the demands of most office environments, and support for its use is excellent, given the number of users. There are literally hundreds of websites that help you learn, tweak, customize and refine Outlook so that it does just what you need.

Other players

For Windows and Mac, there are still a number of third-party e-mail applications, but none is a rising star by any means, whether free or otherwise. Besides Eudora, there is IncrediMail, Pegasus Mail and Windows Mail for Windows users, all of which are takeoffs on pretty much the same theme. Use one and you have pretty much met them all. There may be some specialty features, of course, that will make you select one over another.

On the Mac side, NisusMail tries a somewhat different approach by leveraging your word processor as the read/write engine, and the Finder as the navigator. There are also specialty applications such as Mulberry Mail, Outspring and the interesting Magellan Pro, which takes a database approach to the task of reading, writing and storing e-mails.

Bottom lines

Unless you are choosing an e-mail client for a large firm ? where you have to consider the platform, interoperability questions, security, user sophistication, etc. ? you can safely limit your choices to the freebies. All modern e-mail clients are secure, capable, stable and at least somewhat customizable, so any user (home or business) should be able to cobble together a good, free solution.

The cross-platform application Thunderbird, from the Mozilla Foundation, is a great choice no matter what kind of computer or environment you are working in. There are Mac, Windows and Linux flavors, and the open-source nature of the application means that ongoing development and experimentation will keep it at the leading edge. If you need more than this e-mail client offers, then you probably need a proprietary application or a heavily customized open-source one.

Armed with this basic information and clear picture of what you need in your home or office setting, you are encouraged to visit some websites that will compare the various features and help you select the proper e-mail client for your situation. Remember to define your wish list (and real-world needs) in advance, and don't be knocked off track by whiz-bang features that do not enhance productivity.

Especially for business, you need to select an e-mail application that is lean, focused and straightforward to use. Animated bells and whistles are really not very important. Functionality and dependability are, however. Don't neglect to check in at the various online user forums so that you can use the aggregate knowledge of millions of other users to pinpoint just the right program for your own use.