MAC versus PC

“Why is it things have to be so difficult in the computer-world?” my wife asked. “Why is it Apple and Microsoft are always at war?”
Yrs trly drives an Apple Macintosh; this here blog is created on an Apple MacBook Pro.
“Apple’s OS-X is probably the superior computer operating-system, yet the world is tilted toward Microsoft,” my wife declared.
“Try to do anything across platforms, and ya run into walls.”
My e-mail on this laptop is AppleMail.
It works fine here at home, but not on the road.
It needs an Internet connection to Rochester RoadRunner.
Without it it won’t send.
I’ve been told foreign RoadRunners are firewalled.
It was suggested I use RoadRunner’s web-mail.
Which works — I tested it.
It even does a “Return-Receipt-Requested,” which as far as I can see AppleMail doesn’t do.
But of course, my e-mail address-list is in AppleMail; RoadRunner’s web-mail had nothing — it was empty.
So, “export” my AppleMail address-list to “import” into RoadRunner’s web-mail.
NO CAN DO!
AppleMail doesn’t have an “export” function, but the separate Address-Book AppleMail accesses, does.
Okay, “export” address-book address-list; it ends up on my Desktop with a .abbu extension.
RoadRunner web-mail wants a .csv extension, the PC world.
I changed .abbu to .csv.
Windows seems to want a file-extension. Sometimes just adding it, or changing it, works.
Not this time. Deafening silence; NOTHING!
Plan B: The e-mail on my old tower, which still works, is Netscape.
RoadRunner will import a Netscape .csv, so will my old tower “export” my old Netscape address-list as .csv? (That was what my AppleMail address-list was made from.)
If not, it’s back to what I was doing last night (Saturday, February 26, 2011): manually doing a “new contact” in RoadRunner web-mail for every single entry in my AppleMail address-book. —There are almost 100.
So far I’ve done nine; and I have “groups” to manufacture.
Plus we’ve observed RoadRunner web-mail only automatically fills in the address of people you’ve previously e-mailed.
AppleMail was friendlier. It filled in the e-mail address from the address-book, previous e-mail or not.
To send the first time on RoadRunner web-mail, you have to first select that recipient.

• My wife of 43+ years is “Linda.” She retired as a computer programmer.
• We live near Rochester, NY, and our Internet connection is Time-Warner’s Rochester RoadRunner via cable.