Is mail calendar sync important to you? Apparently, Microsoft doesn’t think so. It’s no longer available as an integrated solution for free with the latest version of the Windows operating system. For some odd reason, the company decided to do away with years of tradition and bundle separate calendar and email applications — as a download, no less!

That’s right; not only is there no mail calendar sync like before, but the alternatives provided aren’t even provided “out of the box” — they have to be downloaded first. This is due to Microsoft not wanting to go to court over monopoly accusations anymore. By providing just about anything and everything a casual computer user could want out of the box, it had been sued numerous times for stifling competition by the makers of such software as web browsers and, yes, e-mail clients. So with the latest version of Windows available on the market, Redmond’s decided to make everyone download such freebies, thus signifying consumer choice as opposed to somehow being forced to use only Microsoft products by virtue of their free inclusion with the operating system.

So, all well and good, but why oh why did it also have to have taken away the intuitive mail calendar sync provided by the integrated solution it used to, well, provide?? What would having calendar and contact functionality together in a free e-mail program have done to its fears over looking like a monopoly? Such features are almost always found together now, and separating the two into two separate programs is indisputably a step back. Or is Microsoft just being snarky with the government and its competitors — at the expense of Windows end-users?

Who knows what they’re thinking. Who knows why they stopped including pinball in their free games line-up! It’s a silly decision, which is compounded by their silly response that there are separate Windows 7 programs for calendars and contacts!

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