Get Gmail, but you still have to deal with spam, all free email provider are not perfect.
Yes, you still get spam, but from any email account you get spam. But with Gmail I think in the 2 years I've had it; I've only had about 6 spam emails in my inbox total, and all of the rest in my spam folder. I can give you an invite if you want an account 45ish.
I have 1000 spam messages in my spam filter on gmail. got them in the past 11 days. and i have nearly 400 un-read e-mails and 2000 read ones.
lol, on average I think I receive about 50 spam emails a day. but in my spam folder of course
yarr, me too, 50 a day in spam folder, but still 1-2 a week in my inbox.
@45ish: what about windows live mail? i think, it's still a bit slow, but much better than hotmail. anyway, i use gmail and i only check my hotmail only once a month.
I have 1000 spam messages in my spam filter on gmail. got them in the past 11 days. and i have nearly 400 un-read e-mails and 2000 read ones.
i got 1400 in my gmail spam box 
hahaha. i only get 10-15 spam message in my spam folder on gmail a day. beat all of you guys.
the interface is excellent on gmail.
i especially like the grouping of emails, makes it really easy to track emails sent to people.
I really hate MSN Hotmail. I am weaning myself from it. After you land on the mailbox list page after signing in, it takes three weeks to load because of the ignorant script they use for spamming ads in your face. I don't mind ads on free services, but the wait on their pages is frustrating.
I use Outlook to download Hotmail. I can download without ads very quickly, move between folders and delete lots all at once. I find it very quick.
Hotmail a few years ago loaded over a hundred spam emails into my in box or junk folder every day but now I only get the odd one in my inbox and just a handful in the junk mail folder so I think they must have improved the filtering.
It's so different with my BT/Yahoo email addresses where I get lots of bulk mail every day in two addresses I never use. One is just a free address I never use and the other has been disclosed to eBay which may explain the spam on that one.
I use Outlook to download Hotmail. I can download without ads very quickly, move between folders and delete lots all at once. I find it very quick.
Hotmail a few years ago loaded over a hundred spam emails into my in box or junk folder every day but now I only get the odd one in my inbox and just a handful in the junk mail folder so I think they must have improved the filtering.
It's so different with my BT/Yahoo email addresses where I get lots of bulk mail every day in two addresses I never use. One is just a free address I never use and the other has been disclosed to eBay which may explain the spam on that one.
with gmail i seem to get around 30-50 spam a day but they all go into the spam folder and i hardly ever get any in my inbox. i think mine might be high to most as my email is advertised on quite a few websites.