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I think one of the reasons why I love Fastmail so much, is that I see a lot of the qualities that matter to me in Jeremy and Rob. I work for the U.S. government and see the wasteful bureaucracy every day. It drives me nuts. I sincerely appreciate the careful thought put into Fastmail. It acheives that balance of efficiency and productivity. The fly-by observer may look at Fastmail and think it's not enough because it's too simple. Fact is, it does so much more than most any other web based e-mail provider and yet it is so simple and fast. To me, Hotmail is the cyber equivalent of Uncle Sam. Hotmail dictates what it wants for you, rather than you dictating what you want your e-mail client to do. I'm sure that's great if you are one of the mindless masses who don't like to think, but that's just not me. Fastmail delivers and does so beautifully. Even when I'm lazy or too busy to dive into the advanced features, Fastmail allows for the casual user.
I've been using Fastmail since its early beta stages and have seen the wonderful evolution. How many times has Bill Gates personally answered your support requests? I'm just a nobody in the pool of Fastmail users and yet, I can recall several times Jeremy or Rob have personally responded to one of my trouble calls. Of course, they can't do that as much any more, for they are only two people, but that same dedication and effort is still evident even in the less personable forms. I've come to trust the people behind the product; that they mean what they say and back it up with action. I've no doubt they love their work, are dedicated to their product, and will be around for a long time. I had my doubts when I first started using Fastmail, but over four years later, I am a very happy customer.
If you are wondering if Fastmail is worth the hassle of changing over, the answer is yes. Hotmail, Yahoo, Bigfoot, Globe, ISP provided e-mail, school, government, etc., I've used all of them and none have met my expectations like Fastmail. A few of my expectations could only be met by paying for membership and subsequent upgrades in storage space and bandwith, but it's been worth every cent. I like my free stuff, but I also know when I find a quality value and that's Fastmail. Although I no longer use dial-up, I still am forced to use slow connections at work and when travelling. Fastmail loads faster than any other web-based e-mail client that I've ever used. Best of all, I rarely ever receive spam (I use a second account for online registrations) and it has caught several viruses and automatically taken care of them.
Although there are many extra features, the one I want to point out is the Notes. At first, I thought, "how useless and trivial." But I've learned how handy it is when I need to copy a web address on a public terminal or post important notes that I know I will want later on and will need access to from a different computer. It's a small detail, but that's the point - Jeremy and Rob take the time to do it right, down to the last detail. If you don't have Fastmail yet, do yourself a favor and sign up.
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