email

If you buy a brand new computer today from a name brand manufacturer, it will come with Windows 98, NT, 2000, Millenium Edition, etc and Internet Explorer and Outlook Express.
You can use Outlook Express to send and recieve e-mail, as well as pictures. You can save the e-mails you recieve, or delete them. You can create an address book with a list of all of your friend's e-mail addresses.
Pegasus, Eudora Mail, Netscape Mail and other e-mail programs also do all of the above. The difference is, they do not usually come standard with your computer. You can download them from their manufacturer's websites or often from your Internet Service Provider's website.
Some ISP's like AOL, Compuserver, Prodigy, etc. give you their own custom e-mail programs when you use them for Internet Service.
If you have an older machine or one that did not come with an e-mail program, always check with your ISP first. Then check with the person you bought your computer from or the manufacturer's website. These programs are usually free, but you can also go to a software retail store (or any computer store) and buy them.
What is the difference?
Personal Preference. You should use the e-mail program that you are the most comfortable with. If you have never used e-mail before, start with whatever program is installed on your machine. You can also ask your friends or neighbors, your local computer techs, etc what they recommend. After you become more familiar with e-mail, you can try other programs.
If you want to skip the whole downloading/installing issue altogether, you may use a free service like Yahoo Mail. Go to www.yahoo.com and click on Check E-mail. Pick a username and a password. All the instructions will appear on your screen.
***Your username, whether you use an ISP e-mail or any other, will always be part of your e-mail address. For example, my username is jackthepug so my e-mail is [email protected]
If you still have questions, e-mail me or post a message on my message board which is located on my past dillemas page.