Why Gmail is better?

First off, it is free. Also, if you use extensions in your browser, preferably Firefox, you can even have the annoying ads blocked. Once such ad blocker is Adblock Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/?src=search) and the Element Hiding Helper for Adblcok Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/elemhidehelper/?src=search). These make the ads go away and makes Gmail even more free. Thirdly, the google labs extension can help tailor your Gmail experience even more. There is one lab extension I use all the time. It lets me hold down the right key and move my mouse left or right to move from the next email to the last email. This keeps me from having to scroll all the way to the button to change the email or go back to the inbox to change the email. This mainly speeds up the email browsing time, by a lot.

Hope this helped.