There are no perfect desktop email clients, but Thunderbird is pretty great.

It's a little too powerful for my needs, so I stick to Claws.

But Thunderbird still doesn't support outlook calendar etc right?

I must say I'm quite pleased with it too. The previous time I tried it was in 2005 and it was just ok. I also recently found out about the Owl add-on. Really makes it a good alternative

I hate how they use quotes around the name Thunderbird...

It can even look great with the Monterail Dark 2 Add-On.

(For some reason I had to download it and then install it from the downloaded file, but it DOES work!)

Also available in a Full Dark mode version

So reading another article (https://www.heise.de/news/Microsoft-lays-hands-on-login-data-Beware-of-the-new-Outlook-9358925.html )makes it more clear. If you consent to syncing IMAP account to outlook then it will transfer IMAP username password and mailserver config to Outlook.

I mean, they could have specified that your IMAP credentials would be synced, but it's redundant considering you're telling it to sync.

I know, right? Jesus I hate bullshit tech "reporting" like this. This particular comment just smacks of outrage "journalism":

Microsoft gets full access to mails, calendars and contacts!

It is very easy to find other sources making the same claim, such as this one which includes an image of allegedly posted json including passwords.

Best decision of my life... After initial set up, it works better than microshit whore OS. You pay but it does not love you.

Here here, best 6 years ever. Never looked back.

Outlook has nothing to do with the OS though? You can get the same Outlook app on MacOS too.

I went on a trawl on email security and privacy.

It doesn't fucking exist.

Regular mails w/e sure

But I'm never talking to someone via email again.

Have you tried Nine mail? https://www.9folders.com/en/index.html

It costs some money to continue using it/unlock all features, but that's a one time fee (assuming that it hasn't changed).

I can't use it anymore as IT has disabled all support for 3rd party mail apps. Was the best exchange mail app I ever found (it actually supports the categories using which I've organised my mail).

I (and my colleagues on iOS) have no choice but to use outlook mobile as the Apple mail app and everything else is blocked due to GDPR.

On Android I haven't found a good app that would work with EWS - I'm using K-9 over IMAP which isn't great.

On Android, I use FairEmail which is a fantastic open-source app. However, it doesn't support any proprietary Microsoft stuff. For my work email, I use Nine, which works well.

Why wait?

The program it replaced didn't do this, hence the surprise. You could be using the old program, and one day windows update it with this new program, and suddenly your passwords are uploaded to Microsoft cloud service when you launched it. People would similarly surprised if K-9 mail upcoming replacement, Thunderbird mobile, suddenly store your password in the cloud.

Configuring local software vs delegating to a web service

Why can't you sign up?

Use a different mail app, and use the outlook account.