Heh. I probably should have said: I’m not jumping off a cliff with option anxiety or anything like that. I’m just noting what an ongoing temptation the shiny bauble is for me.

For now—and again this bears its own post—I have a pretty Green Acres setup that’s worked relatively well for me.

• Mail.app with IMAP - For most of of my day-to-day email. I prefer it to any other Mail program for a variety of flaky reasons (mostly because of what other apps don’t do rather than any one thing Mail does particularly well).
• Entourage (again with IMAP) - Entourage’s initial attraction was the “Project Center,” which is that classic widget that almost works how I want. I love having everything (mail, contacts, notes, appointments, etc.) linked and associated within a project. Ultimately—in a much better and more open format—that linking functionality will comprise the killer productivity app for me.
• TextMate & BBEdit - I write all my “writer guy” stuff in TextMate projects, but still prefer to do serious HTML stuff in BBEdit (with dashes of SkEdit and Dreamweaver)
• Quicksilver - QS has completely spoiled me. If I can’t do what I want with Quicksilver, yes, it feels like a drag to me. A big, dumb drag (I’m looking at you, Entourage McLockyuppy).
• IMAP - It’s all abut IMAP. I can freely use Mail.app, Entourage, and my web client interchangeably. IMHO, an IMAP-like future awaits us for all our data. I want everything everywhere and non-destructively (and without the hassle of formal CVS-like checkouts).

So yeah. Entourage—with which I have a rich love/hate relationship—is there because, well, it’s there, you know? And it works okay. A few weeks after undertaking the ramp up to Entourage (and ever since), I’ve wanted to get away. But to what? I’m sticking with it until something really compelling draws me away. I’m tired of living out of boxes.

Anyway. Long response. I’ll try to flesh this out in a post next month.