E-mail's not free? Mac owners flee

It looks like Apple is getting plenty of heat for it's recent decision to charge for it's .mac email services according to a story over opn CNet.

Apple Computer's plan to start charging for its Mac.com e-mail service has Mac owners scrambling for alternatives.

Even as a petition circulates to try to get Apple to change its mind, many users are shopping around for a lower-cost way to get their mail before Apple pulls the plug on the free service at the end of September.

"I am most upset because I felt I purchased this when I bought the OS," said software engineer Paul Causey, who has now signed up for a free e-mail account through Yahoo. "Each time I went into an Apple store, they sold me on the idea of iDisk and e-mail."

Although Apple never explicitly said that the accounts would be free for life, many Mac users had counted on it and were not happy when CEO Steve Jobs announced that, starting in September, the e-mail accounts will become part of Apple's $99 per year .Mac service.

News source: CNet News