I’ve long wanted to switch away from hotmail, a product of the evil Microsoft empire.

But to switch to Yahoo mail or Gmail smoothly seems impossible without third party software since hotmail (free version) no longer allows you to forward email.

Any advice for me? Ideally I would like an email solution with both desktop and web interfaces.

One last hope is that Microsoft wants me to evolve to their next hotmail – Windows Live Mail, in beta testing since Nov. 2005. It looks to be slow and buggy.