I've spent a decade trying to get people off Hotmail, with limited success, but it has now made a great leap forward with Windows Live Hotmail. This offers a drag-and-drop interface and supports right-clicking, provides 2GB of storage and, most importantly, it doesn't junk your email if you forget to log on for a month. It's already available in 36 languages.
Actually there are two interfaces: a "classic Hotmail" with tabs, and the Live version, which is similar to Outlook, and obliges you to agree that you have a fast connection. During the beta, this was horribly slow, but the final version seems much snappier. It's certainly usable.
Still on the way are the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector and WLMd, both now in beta. The Connector lets you run your Windows Live Hotmail account from inside Outlook, with contact and e-mail folder synchronization. (Support for iCal would be nice, too.) WLMd or Windows Live Mail Desktop replaces Outlook Express (and Vista's Windows Mail). Technically these add up to a next-generation Web/desktop application that puts Microsoft ahead of both Google and Yahoo, though the combination of Gmail and Thunderbird (etc) adds up to much the same thing.
Windows Live Hotmail is still my third choice in major Web-based mail systems. Google's Gmail is still the best, I think, though Yahoo is pushing it close, and Live Hotmail is still a bit behind that. But it's not completely horrible, so Live Hotmail represents a major advance. It also has an advantage in covering so many languages.
And for people who use Microsoft Live Messenger, or want to blog to their Space via email, the integration of Live applications will also have some appeal.
Microsoft has a press release with details.
