FYI: Outlook 97 vs. Outlook Express

There has been a lot of confusion lately over the name "Outlook Express"so Microsoft's David Goodhand posted the following note to the publicnewsgroup microsoft.public.outlook97 today. Here is his explanation:

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Rather than post this reply in many different threads, I thought I'd postas a global message. There are several confused threads where people arespeculating what Outlook Express is, and few are getting it right.

Simply, Outlook Express is the new name for Microsoft Internet Mail andNews. Microsoft has been working on an update for IM&N for some time toship with Internet Explorer 4.0. The only new news is the name change toOutlook Express. If you have IM&N today, then you have the current versionof Outlook Express.

The release of Outlook Express does not mean that regular Outlook 97magically gets features like newsgroup support from Outlook Express. Nordoes the name change imply that Outlook Express suddenly has features likea calendar that are currently found only in regular Outlook.

What is correct is the assumption of many that the similar names imply astrategy. It is our strategy to carry forward both Outlook Express andOutlook 97, with Outlook 97 always as the superset of Outlook Express. Weintend to offer similar user interface, terminology, and configurationwherever possible. The two products will be developed as a single family.[In the present, Outlook is NOT a superset of Outlook Express --David].

I just want to make sure that people are distinguishing between thefeatures we have shipped or [publicly] committed to shipping, and a moregeneral strategy that does not necessarily imply committed features ordates.

David Goodhand
Microsoft Outlook group product planning manager

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One Web site of interest to Outlook users is the Outlook Resource Site.

--Pau