I have had an Hotmail account since 1997 (i.e. don't ask me to switch - have hundreds of filters and folders and thousands of contacts) and I recently switched to a Mac and I am looking for a Mac client that would deliver the same functionality as Windows Live Mail did in my PC. Also, don't ask me to forward/import to Gmail. I have tried that numerous times - Gmail fails at importing filter rules or nested folders properly from Hotmail and it also has numerous issues with sync and contacts etc when importing from Hotmail.

The Mail.app only supports POP3 for Hotmail which I hate because it is only local sync - I am looking for either IMAP/DeltaSync/Exchange (i.e. 2-way sync) for my Hotmail to work in Mac. I tried Postbox/Sparrow Lite/Outlook in Mac Office 2011/Thunderbird with webmail plugin/Eudora and none worked. I tried mBox for Mac and it worked great for about 2 weeks and now it stopped working with the new Lion Mail.app update. In anycase, mBox has been out of development since 2009. I looked at IzyMail but I am not willing to pay a subscription - I don't mind paying a one time fee though.

Hotmail used Exchange ActiveSync which works well on my iPhone. Mac's Mail program works with many Exchange servers, so I am really confused why Mac Mail cannot ActiveSync with my Hotmail account which apparently supports Exchange.

I just want a mail client that truly syncs with Hotmail. Information to a POP3 clients flows one way so the Mac cannot update the server with read status, reply status and more.

I am willing to pay for a solution and I just can't find such a software! I am also willing to pay a one-time fee for an IMAP gateway too and I can't find any such thing either.

Is it really that hard to get Hotmail working in Mac?