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Thunderbird. June 21, 2006 Jon Atherton, Dan Bartholomew CIT/IS http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/email/thunderbird/. Agenda. Why Thunderbird? Client Comparison Migration Tools Migration Plans Training Roadmap. Background. Ownership of e-mail: CIT: S&O: Messaging
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Thunderbird June 21, 2006 Jon Atherton, Dan BartholomewCIT/IS http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/email/thunderbird/
Agenda • Why Thunderbird? • Client Comparison • Migration Tools • Migration Plans • Training • Roadmap
Background Ownership of e-mail: CIT: S&O: Messaging Client Support (backline): CIT: IS: P&D E-mail back-office meetings
An E-Mail working group was created in April; http://itmc.cornell.edu/cornell_edu/ITMC/CCD/Thunderbird_Committee.cfm;the members include: • Rob Bandler, Univ. Registrar • Thomas Crook, Human Ecology • Debra Howell, Facilities • Don Sevey, Campus Life • Steve Staiger, ILR • CIT: Jon Atherton, Dan Bartholomew, Leslie Intemann, Diane Sempler, Jeff Truelsen • The objectives of the group included: • Discuss current issues with Eudora. • Is Thunderbird the right E-Mail client? Discuss CIT’s discovery and evaluation process. • If Thunderbird is the right client, discuss next steps and develop a migration plan.
Eudora issues • Lack of unicode support • Lost IMAP mail in early days soured some users • Crashes, generally with imbedded html or mailformed images • Limited HTML rendering image (without MS viewer) • Random freezing with no resolution • Unknown future – Qualcomm is a cell phone company
Eudora Great POP client, IMAP has been problematic for some users. Because system mailboxes (IN/OUT/TRASH) are opened at launch time, they are susceptible to system failures. Thunderbird 1.5.x Standards based POP and IMAP. Its IMAP function seems to be much better. POP/IMAP Support
Eudora Yes (selectable by Personality) Thunderbird Yes (selectable by Account) Authenticated SMTP
Eudora Kerberos or Plain using SSL Thunderbird Kerberos or Plain using SSL Password Security
Eudora Yes (displays all returned fields - standard and eduPerson fields) when using Directory services. Thunderbird Yes (displays standard fields or those re-mapped from eduPerson equivalence). In addition to working with the Address book, it also performs LDAP queries while entering addresses in the To: fields. LDAP Support
Eudora Basically designed to handle the English language although there is a version available for Japanese. Thunderbird Thunderbird supports UNICODE which makes communicating with international colleagues easier. UniCode/UTF-8 Issues
Eudora You can create multiple Personalities which can work on independent IMAP mailboxes or common POP mailbox. Need to use Filter to keep incoming/Outgoing mail separate for each Personality. Thunderbird You can create multiple Accounts which can work on independent IMAP and POP mailboxes or configured to share a local mailbox. Multiple Mailbox Support
Eudora Has internal (limited but secure) rendering engine or can utilize the Microsoft Viewer (Internet Explorer) with its security risks. Thunderbird Uses the Mozilla rendering Engine which more closely matches the capabilities of Eudora when the Microsoft Viewer (Internet Explorer) is enabled without the security risks. HTML Rendering
Eudora Flat files (MBX) with Attachments stored in another location and a separate Table of Contents (TOC) Thunderbird Standard mailbox format, attachments are embedded, but you are able to delete or extract attachments and keep just the body of the mail file. Mailbox Format
Eudora Very flexible, (matches regexp allows for wild character matching) Thunderbird Flexible but not as customizable as Eudora's Filtering
Eudora Extensible and very fast with Version 7 Thunderbird Basic searching capabilities, but there is a facility for finding mail file with particular information on the main screen. Searching
Eudora Yes. Also uses the Probability score assigned by PerlMx. Thunderbird Yes. You can create a filter that also checks the Gauge value assigned by PerlMx. Junk Mail
Eudora Windows/Mac Thunderbird Windows/Mac/Linux Platforms Supported
Eudora Mailboxes have an extension (MBX) that can be excluded from Real Time and Scheduled Scans. Thunderbird Mailboxes do not contain an extension, so the entire folder needs to be excluded from Real Time and Scheduled Scans. AntiVirus Issues
Eudora No Thunderbird Yes News Reader
Eudora Qualcomm is responsible for development and fixes. Thunderbird Open source and is being adopted by more users which should keep Thunderbird evolving as a robust mail client. Vendor Support
Migration Tools • EudoraRescue – Maintains Status, Label and Priority. Pre-processor for Thunderbird’s import facility. [Win] • EmailChemy – Single step import tool but does not appear to maintain Status, Label or Priority information. [Mac/Win] • Transend – Similar features/limitations to EmailChemy [Win] • Eudora Mailbox Cleaner – Single step import tool. Maintains Status and Labels. Puts output mailboxes in fixed location. [Mac]
Migration Plans • College of Human Ecology • Facilities
Training • Thunderbird Training for Eudora users, focus on items that are different, target audience is those employees who have local tech support (they don’t need to know much about configuration) • Regular Thunderbird training for stand-alone user
Roadmap • Summer, 2006: Begin support for Thunderbird • Summer/Fall ’06: End user training available • Summer, 2007: Move Eudora to Updates & Extras • Summer, 2009: End support for Eudora