It would be nice if I can use my linux system with my hotmail account

1. Due to circumstances beyond my control I have a ms hotmail.com account that I have to reach daily. I can work with it ok if I use the Firefox connection directly to the live.com site. I would like to use something a bit more elegant, like Evolution but can not get it to connect to the live.com system. I suspect there is something wrong with the commands I use for the pop3 and smtp but can not be certain. Can anyone provide a definitive connection methodology for this application?

2. When booting ubuntu the grub boot give me the standard choices. I have edited most of the stuff out that I don't like to see but there is still a problem when the system boots. I get several lines of script that say , in effect, that there is not device to mount , etc. This does not seem to hinder the actual loading of the system, as it boots fine. I would like to know why this code is still hanging around and if I am doing something really wrong. As, mentioned, the system boots fine.