Rated 3 out of 5 stars

Redingo, I understand your issue with wanting to replace outlook. I have found a way to work around this issue, but it does still require outlook, and is more complicated than it should be... but it works. Get the Nokia PC Suite from http://www.nokiausa.com/get-support-and-software/software/nokia-suites-for-your-pc
Get gSyncit (for $15) from http://www.daveswebsite.com/
Get Provider for Google Calendar add-on from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/sunbird/addon/4631
Get Zindus add-on from
http://www.zindus.com/
After ALL THAT, you have your phone synced with Outlook, which is synced with Thunderbird.
Of course, all this is assuming that you have the Lightning add-on... :)