Hotmail and Me

We seem to be having problems with each other. Why?

1. Hotmail won't play nice with Firefox. I have to log on twice and am forced to use the Classic interface all the time. According to Mozilla this is happening because I have a @msn.com e-mail address and they have a bug. Not Microsoft's fault. Correction: it is the Hotmail site that's not properly coded, apparently, so Microsoft is to blame after all.
2. Outlook can't connect to the account or maintain a connection. This is Microsoft's fault; their own program doesn't work with their e-mail service. I don't think Outlook works that well with Exchange, even....

And an Outlook rant: No matter how I configure it the Send/Receive button won't check my web mail addresses. Which, now that uni is finished and I don't need an Exchange connection anymore, sucks. If Thunderbird had Hotmail support (and iTunes would be willing to sync my iPhone with something other than Outlook) I'd be switching very. very fast.