What browser are you using? Is it Microsoft’s Internet Explorer? Are you sick of the pop-ups, security holes, pages that seem slow to load, browser crashes? If so, maybe you should try Mozilla from Mozilla.org.
Also, if you really want a stripped down, clean, standards complaint browser based on Mozilla, try Firefox, also from Mozilla.org.
Need an email client that isn’t vulnerable to all the same exploits that Outlook and Outlook Express are? Try Thunderbird, also from Mozilla.org. Mozilla also comes with a good mail program as well.
Want to clean your email before it reaches your email client? Try Mailwasher! They offer a free version, but the paid version offers a lot more advanced features. The great thing is you can safely remove spam and virus attached emails without opening them in your email client.
Like to IM but hate having 3-5 different clients open? Sick of the ads served by AOL, MSN, ICQ and Yahoo’s clients? Give Trillian a try. They offer a free version as well as a paid version that does some amazing things. On a mac? Try Fire an open source GPL program.
Also, if you are one of the unfortunate remaining users of AOL. Did you know that you can now access your AOL email from your email client of choice? Just set up a new account in your email client and set it up as an IMAP server with the address “imap.aol.com”. You can also use AOL’s SMTP server for outgoing mail, “smtp.aol.com” or just use your ISP’s provided smtp server if you can’t get AOL’s to work.