Recommended Email Client 2010/2011
From early 2011, Windows 7 will be the standard Windows desktop deployed across campus, and will include Thunderbird as the default, recommended email client, for all staff and students. During the academic year 2010/2011 the standard desktop will not include Mulberry or Microsoft Outlook by default.
This document will explain why Thunderbird is the default email client during this period, and briefly outline possible future directions for collaborative communication systems at the University (email, instant messaging, voice, video, and so on).
Why is Mulberry no longer recommended?
Although Mulberry was technically a very competent email application, and had many features (a few of which are still not available in other email applications today), it had a poorly designed interface — people told us they did not find it intuitive to use, it did not display HTML messages (emails with pictures or graphics in), it did not support foreign character sets (emails in Chinese, Russian etc.) and it was difficult to setup for off-campus use (e.g. for laptops and home computers). Significantly, the company which developed Mulberry went out of business in 2007, and although the code was released to the open source community, there has been very little development since. Looking forward, Mulberry cannot be a suitable choice for our recommended email client.
Why is Thunderbird being deployed?
Thunderbird is a free, open-source email application, which is actively being developed and has an intuitive interface, similar to Microsoft Outlook, yet without the instabilities outlined below. Thunderbird is available for Windows, Apple Mac, Linux and Solaris. Having a single recommended email client, on a variety of platforms for both staff and students, allows Computing Services staff to develop specific features, training, documentation, and support skills. Computing Services has successfully moved hundreds of staff to Thunderbird over the past year. It is proving to be more user friendly than Mulberry, more reliable than Outlook.
Why is Outlook not the recommended email client?
Another popular email application on campus is Microsoft Outlook. Almost the opposite of Mulberry, Outlook has a well-designed interface that most people find simple to use, yet from a technical point of view it does not work particularly well with the University’s email systems. Outlook is unstable, many Outlook users will have had their day disrupted, putting in a support call and waiting for their “pst” file to be repaired. Outlook does not work well if you use more than one computer on campus, it does not save your sent messages reliably, yet it wastes hundreds of gigabytes of central storage by duplicating messages already on the email server onto your H drive. For those staff using the standalone calendaring features of Outlook, we would suggest using the shared Oracle calendaring system.
However, BUCS recognizes the popularity of the Outlook client, so Outlook 2010 will be available as an alternative email client for those who require it for uses not supported by Thunderbird, such as interaction with other business applications, contact syncing with PDAs and advanced task management. Although it will be available as an option, Outlook 2010 remains as potentially unstable as previous versions, so Thunderbird is the recommended email client, particularly for anyone who might access email from more than one University computer.
Looking further ahead
Although the current solution is likely to remain in place throughout 2011, Computing Services are continually examining alternative, future communications and collaboration systems. These include commercial solutions such as Microsoft Exchange, and cloud-based offerings such as Microsoft Live@Edu and Google Apps for Education.
Computing Services
16th August 2010