Hotmail users: Microsoft is putting you on notice! Like it or not, your account will soon get the slick new Outlook.com experience, which the company has finally taken out of beta.

Microsoft's Outlook Blog announced Monday that the all-new Outlook.com preview launched last summer is finally out of beta after growing to 60 million users during only six months.

"Today is a major milestone in our mission to provide people everywhere with the world's best email experience," the blog post boldly announced. "You'll also see us kick off a large-scale marketing effort around the world to show that Outlook.com can get you going."

While we'd have to concur that Outlook.com is indeed a pretty slick way to tackle email, it may not be for everyone. In fact, if you're a user of Microsoft's classic Hotmail service, you may be in for a shock in the very near future.

"As Outlook.com comes out of preview, we're also announcing that we will soon upgrade every Hotmail user to Outlook.com," the blog post continues. "The upgrade is seamless and instant for people who use Hotmail.  Everything from their @hotmail.com email address, password, messages, folders, contacts, rules, vacation replies, etc. will stay the same, with no disruption in service."

While that may sound like ominous news for many Hotmail users who fear change, the good news is that you won't have to give up your @hotmail.com address -- Microsoft has no plans to force the switch if you don't want it.

Meanwhile, Hotmail users will be able to enjoy the same great UI, new features and better performance that their Outlook.com peers are getting, so… sounds like a pretty good compromise to us.

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