However, the issue I’ve been having problems with is regarding syncing. While I like the iPod’s calendar, it’ll only sync with Outlook. And I don’t have MS Office.

I ended up downloading the 60 day trial of MS Office to see what it was like, and I’ve been investigating the various different licenses and purchasing options etc. What surprised me, is that I actually really like the new Outlook. I like the “To-do” pane beside your email with upcoming calendar events, and I like silly little touches, like the pictures in your contacts being displayed in the email you’re reading.

However, it also costs a lot of money, and up until this, I’d been using Thunderbird and Open Office happily.

So I decided to look into Calendaring in Thunderbird. I installed the Lightning plug in, and was very impressed. The To-do panel I liked so much from Outlook was present and correct, and it all seemed pretty polished and nice (apparently its going to be built in as of Thunderbird 3 I was reading).

Last night, I decided to check out my other options, so imported my details from Outlook (I must be getting close to the end of the 60 days I think) into a Google calendar. And it was also pretty painless to get this Google calendar syncing with Thunderbird (via another easily installed plugin).

I’m planning on getting a Blackberry at the end of my current mobile contract, for my home email etc, and it turns out that Google also provide a Sync application for Blackberries.

While I do like the new Outlook, I just can’t justify the expense for an email client, when Thunderbird and Lightning do the same job for nothing. And while I also really like the iPod Touch’s calendar, the fact that its currently locked to only syncing with Outlook is a huge issue for me as a home Windows user.

At the moment I’m really happy with Thunderbird and Lightning alongside a Google calendar, and with the Blackberry syncing as an option, I can really see it as the way forward for me. By keeping the calendar online, it means I can easily access it on my laptop as well, when I’m gaming on my main PC, or view it from my Linux installation with a minimum of fuss.

The moral of the story? I suppose that prohibitive costs and locking things down scores another victory for free software. My hope is that Apple opens up the calendaring options in a future update to allow it to sync with a Google calendar (or directly with Thunderbird), or that Google provides a sync application similar to the Blackberry one (if that’s possible). Outlook I can leave or take, but it would be really nice to keep using my iPod calendar. However, as things stand, I just don’t think its going to happen.

I guess the other moral of this fairly pointless tale, is that people should try out the lightning plugin for Thunderbird. Its ace