From: jjmckay@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Jim McKay)
Subject: Re: QM vs Eudora/POP (was Re: QM vs MS Mail)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 21:10:20 GMT

alain@linguist.jussieu.fr writes:

>In article <C01IK5.64A@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, jjmckay@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Jim
>McKay) wrote:

>[discussion on relative merits of QuickMail and Eudora/POP 3]

>> 
>> That was all fixed well over a year ago and tweaked in rel 2.5.1.

>It wasn't fixed in the release (2.5a) that I installed less than a year 
>ago, and last I heard it still wasn't. Specifically, you cannot administer
>a mail >server remotely; you also cannot use it as an AppleShare server.  Is this
>fixed >now ?

I used Timbucktu 3.0.1 to remotely adminster a monitorless QM 2.2.3 
server and am now doing so with the latest version of QM admin.  You can use 
the AppleShare server as a QM server as well but the speed is not good.  
Nevertheless I know folks who are doing just that.

>> ****************************************************************************
>> The following highlight some of the differences between QuickMail and Eudora
>> 
>> by Jim McKay with contributions from U OF I mail users and adminstrators.

>[lots of interesting stuff deleted]

>Something to add to the list: the way QM and Eudora support several 
>users on a single machine.  This is important for sites
>that cannot afford a Mac or PC for each user.

>Eudora handles the situation very well: each user has his own Eudora
>folder,
>and starts up Eudora from there, using his own mailboxes, preference
>settings, etc..  Security conscious users can keep their folder on a
>diskette.  

>QM doesn't handle multiple users so well.  For one thing users often forget
>to log out ("disconnect") when they quit, so when other users try to
>connect
>they find someone already logged in.  For another, the mail folder 
>hierarchies of different users are not distinct, so each user sees
>folders created by other users (even if he cannot read their contents).  
>I think (I'm not sure) address books are also specific to the client 
>machine and therefore common, as are QM preference settings.

That's a very good point.

>Another important difference is the way a single account can be accessed 
>from several machines.  If you use Eudora, you can access the underlying 
>Unix mail account using TELNET or Eudora from any Mac on the Internet, 
>even you're running Eudora on another Mac at the same time.  To avoid 
>having incomplete mailboxes all over the place, one simply configures 
>Eudora on all Macs but a "main" one to put mail back on the Unix server 
>after reading it.  All mail eventually winds up in the main machine's 
>mailbox when Eudora polls the unix server from that machine.  Unfortunately

>you cannot access mailboxes on one Mac from another Mac.

>QM stores mail on the server (except archived mail, which lives on the
>client)
>so one can in principle access it from any Mac (or PC) connected to the
>same 
>Appletalk network as the server. Access via the Internet is impossible,
>whether
>with a QM client or with TELNET. 

Yup brought that up.  Although, there is might be something up Apple's sleeve
that takes care of this.  Cough Cough.


> You cannot connect to your QM account if >you're
>connected elsewhere (QM ludicrously suggests "choose another name"!).  You 
>must go and disconnect first.  This happens often enough to be very
>annoying. 

Yes indeedy--this can be annoying if you try to log in from the fifth 
floor when you are already logged in in the basement. 

>> *  A basic QuickMail server with an SMTP gateway can easily be generated 
>> in less than a half hour. 

>Maybe that's true IF you get LOTs of things right the first time.  It took 
>me a week to get IE's SMTP\QM gateway working, with daily e-mail support 
>from the developper, tho I guess I'm atypically slow and snag-prone :-(   
>Perhaps other gateway software is easier to install?

Assuming you know your IP #s for your hosts file, Mail*link for QuickMail
is cake.  Mail*Link is, IMHO, the best, although I'm not an experienced user
of all of the gateway products..

>The QM conference window (as many other dialogs in QM) is modal, so your 
>Mac is frozen during the conference.  No flipping to other applications, 
>no cut and paste.  That makes it useless.  

That sure is a defect and should have never been programmed that way--like 
I said, Eudora is pure craftsmanship and QuickMail could occassionally be 
called "QuirkMail".  Yet, QuickConferencing is somewhat popular.  Although 
I personally use UNIX "Talk", I think that you're going overboard in saying 
that QuickConference is useless.

Somone (was it me?) once said that Eudora is like a VW Beetle and 
QuickMail is like a Chevy Celebrity. I personnally like that comparison.