Transcript HTML Learning Series

Thunderbird
June 21, 2006
Jon Atherton, Dan Bartholomew
CIT/IS
http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/email/thunderbird/
Agenda
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Why Thunderbird?
Client Comparison
Migration Tools
Migration Plans
Training
Roadmap
2
Background
Ownership of e-mail: CIT: S&O: Messaging
Client Support (backline): CIT: IS: P&D
E-mail back-office meetings
3
•
An E-Mail working group was created in April;
http://itmc.cornell.edu/cornell_edu/ITMC/CCD/Thunderbird_Committee.cfm;
the
members include:
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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:
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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.
4
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
5
Comparison of various mail clients
Feature
Eudora
Cross Platform
Y/Y/n
Win/Mac/Linux
Kerberos
Y
SSL
Y
Authenticated SMTP Y
POP
Y
IMAP
Y
Standard Files
Y
(recoverability)
LDAP (eduPerson)
Y
Multiple
Y
Accounts/Personalities
Unicode/UTF-8
N
Junk/Spam (Bayesian
Y
Filter)
Import from Eudora
Thunderbird
Outlook Mulberry Pegasus
/Mozilla
Opera
Y/Y/Y
Y/Y/Y Y/Y
Y/N/N
Y/Y/?
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
N
Y
Y (V1.5)
N
Y
N
No LDAP Support!
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
6
POP/IMAP Support
• 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.
7
Authenticated SMTP
• Eudora
• Yes (selectable by
Personality)
• Thunderbird
• Yes (selectable by
Account)
8
Password Security
• Eudora
• Kerberos or Plain using
SSL
• Thunderbird
• Kerberos or Plain using
SSL
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LDAP Support
• 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.
10
UniCode/UTF-8 Issues
• 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.
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Multiple Mailbox Support
• 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.
12
HTML Rendering
• 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.
13
Mailbox Format
• 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.
14
Filtering
• Eudora
• Very flexible, (matches
regexp allows for wild
character matching)
• Thunderbird
• Flexible but not as
customizable as
Eudora's
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Searching
• 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.
16
Junk Mail
• 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.
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Platforms Supported
• Eudora
• Windows/Mac
• Thunderbird
• Windows/Mac/Linux
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AntiVirus Issues
• 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.
19
News Reader
• Eudora
• No
• Thunderbird
• Yes
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Vendor Support
• 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.
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Migration Tools
• EudoraRescue – Maintains Status, Label and Priority. Preprocessor 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]
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Migration Plans
• College of Human Ecology
• Facilities
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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
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Roadmap
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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
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Questions?