GMail vs. Windows Live Mail

As you probably know by now, I'm a Microsoft fan.  My company is a Microsoft certified partner, I develop using Microsoft technologies, and in general, I really like what I get from them.

That being said, when GMail appeared, I was looking for a webmail service to separate my work and personal email, and so I signed up for an account.  I like it very much: labels are cool, searching is great (what would you expect), and I am personally fine with the UI experience.

Then along comes Windows Live Mail.  As I said, I'm a Microsoft fan, so I thought I would try to sign up for an account and think about switching.

Bad idea.

I simply couldn't figure out how to get started.  I signed up for a new MSN Passport account (not a Windows Live ID, strangely enough) since that was where my attempts to create an account led me.  Once I had that account all set up and in place, I started the Windows Live Mail signup process.

Sorry! You can't get to this page.

It could be because:

• You're not authorized to see it
• You've bumped into some technical problem, and may need to try again

So, I guess I'll be sticking with GMail until I hear that Live Mail is better.  Albeit, this is just one user's opinion, but I think it counts for something.