Spicebird is an all-in-one application based on the Mozilla Gecko engine that could pose a big threat to Microsoft Outlook. Best of all, it's completely free.

Spicebird principally includes e-mail, a calendar and and an IM client. Everything is integrated with Gmail so if you're a user, all your contacts can be conveniently imported immediately. Spicebird also features a nifty RSS reader to keep you ahead of the latest news from your favourite sites. And like Outlook, it warns you when a meeting or appointment is approaching on your calendar. Spicebird is still very much a work in progress and in the future will include new languages and many more extensions to enhance it's performance. In the future, it will include new languages and extensions that enhance its operation. However, there are still basic things that still need to improve before it can seriously rival Outlook including a more advanced contacts list. In addition, like many Mozilla products, it can be rather heavy on your RAM. There are undeniable similarities between Thunderbird and Spicebird but unfortunately, it doesn't seem to integrate very well but as it's still developing, hopefully they will take this into account.

A good looking, easy to use suite which has a lot of potential although it will be a while before it can seriously rival Outlook.