Thunderbird

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Thunderbird

• June 21, 2006
• Jon Atherton, Dan BartholomewCIT/IS
• http//www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/email/thunderb
  ird/

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Agenda

• Why Thunderbird?
• Client Comparison
• Migration Tools
• Migration Plans
• Training
• Roadmap

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Background
Ownership of e-mail CIT SO Messaging Client
Support (backline) CIT IS PD E-mail
back-office meetings
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• An E-Mail working group was created in April
  http//itmc.cornell.edu/cornell_edu/ITMC/CCD/Thund
  erbird_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
  CITs discovery and evaluation process.
• If Thunderbird is the right client, discuss next
  steps and develop a migration plan.

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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

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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.

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Authenticated SMTP

• Eudora
• Yes (selectable by Personality)

• Thunderbird
• Yes (selectable by Account)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. Pre-processor for Thunderbirds 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
  dont need to know much about configuration)
• Regular Thunderbird training for stand-alone user

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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

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Questions?