Being replaced by outlook.com

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19067634

I've had my Hotmail account since about '96.
I'm a little reluctant to give it up after all this time.
I say boo to this.

I use hot mail as a spam address. ie Some company wants me email address for something pointless, they are given my hotmail address.

No mention of an Outlook.co.uk either.

I have a Googlemail address as I have an Android phone. I may just use that as a spam address when Hotmail dies. Do I really need to sign up for another?

Yup, that's the whole point of my Hotmail too. It's my web-facing account, as it were. I rarely use it for anything serious.

Loving the new look, I may actually favour my MSN e-mail address over Gmail at this rate.

I've just got googlemail to import all my hotmail emails so I don't loose them.

Just been to outlook.com
It already has my hotmail inbox, it also lists my hotmail address when it sends emails.
So maybe they'll keep hotmail addresses.

As much as it's not a 'shiny' GUI, it's functional and slick

Most awesome feature... Creating your own Aliases (I have 4 to my main account currently so I can effectively consolodate a few old email aliases)

Downside.... unlike Gmail I have had to register [firstname][surname]@outlook.com as an alias for [firstname].[surname]@outlook.com but that isn't a biggie tbh as there are plenty of usernames left (couldnt get just my first name though). You can also choose if you want them to get a dedicated folder.

I used my main inbox as my [a][b] and [a].[b] aliases, then individual boxes for the others, inlcuding some that are domain related for some sites I have

They will keep hotmail addresses, but the option to get the new domain is a nice thing


In fact it's even cooler, the drop down at the top also gives easy access to contacts, skydrive and calendar

There's absolutely no talk of anyone having to give up their Hotmail accounts. Why would they even consider that? It specifically says "your email address and password will remain the same".

I've just "upgraded" to have a look. You can change back at any time.

First thoughts? I expected it to be more like Office 365, but it's very much simpler. The Live interface was already pretty slick looking, but this has a minimalistic Metro style to it. It should work well on tablets and phones, although I use the native apps on mine.

I've had my Hotmail.com address for a long time. Only a few close friends know it, and I've always been impressed with the service. My gmail.com address came later, and the primary reason I use that for day to day was originally down to the IMAP support and a few features which Microsoft now also offer. Gmail forced all the other email providers to rethink and drastically improve their services. I remember when Hotmail had a 10Meg inbox limit!

It's late, I skim read the article, saw "Microsoft is overhauling its free webmail service, dropping the Hotmail name it has used since acquiring the product in 1998, and renaming it Outlook.com." and had a Daily Mail response.

Just realised, I haven't checked my hotmail account for a couple of years. Hope it hasn't been deactivated, I've had it for about as long as I've been using the net.

In fairness, the article is rather shoddy and the headline is misleading.

I've had two email accounts with hotmail since 1999. I've have managed to register the same username bit as the old one eg mrwolf@hotmail.com and registered as mrwolf@outlook.com

I've taken the opportunity to score myself a new @outlook.com e-mail address. I've deleted the old @hotmail.com and @live.com ones I have accumulated over the years, though I can't quite bring myself to delete my @msn.com address; so it looks like going forward I'll have an @outlook.com and an @msn.com address.

Just snagged the appropriate outlook.com address.
Mainly to stop my namesakes out there getting it first...