Slow... Takes ages to download...etc. etc. But fact remains that Hotmail is the first (and in lots of causes the default) email address for millions of users.
Hotmail boasts features which have been copied later by other email sites like their Junk Mail Blocker, Virus scan etc. etc. And times when you have had to use their support/help, they have been very supportive/helpful, a ’human’ responding unlike lots of other sites which gives you an autorsponder response.
The offline access through Outlook Express is a bonus (but lately it doesn’t seem to be working.
All in all, despite all its shortcomings its still one email address you cannot afford not to have.