Encoding: 86 TEXT
X-Mailer: Microsoft Mail V3.0 (beta-1)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.banyan-l
Date:         Thu, 1 Oct 1992 14:54:00 PDT
From:         Robertson@SSC.SSCNET.UCLA.EDU
Subject:      re: Microsoft Mail and Banyan

These comments are off the record, so to speak, but they do represent some of
my opinions about the mess we call cross-platform email.

First of all, both MS Mail for PC Networks and cc:Mail run on VINES.  The
mail store or post office is just a bunch of files on a server that all
clients and gateways and routers (MTAs) can see.

It's not exactly accurate to say that MS Mail for PC Networks doesn't work on
Macs and PCs (DOS and Windows).  The 3.0 version just coming out does in fact
run on all these platforms.  Yes, it's the old Network Courier stuff for all
but the Windows version still.  The Windows version is snazzy; the rest are
barely functional (no frills) and not pretty.  With 3.0, there are some
problems about having all three client types see exactly the same mail store
(set of files on disk, that is).  Folders for Windows are different than
folders for DOS, Mac, and the older 2.x Windows front end.  Not all features
cross the platforms, including highlighting and other things.

That said, our December issue will have a report on MS Mail for PC Networks
interoperability, along with one on cc:Mail.  If your object is to find a
mail system that supports many different client platforms with really useable
front ends for all, cc:Mail seems better at this point.  It also has a Unix
(Sun OpenWindows just out) version, and all clients can see the same mail
store (cc:Mail Post Office) if the server on which it resides can have those
clients performing file service simultaneously.  (In other words, on NetWare
3.11 they could all see the same one; on VINES they still can't because
regular VINES doesn't support nfs clients, while the SCO VINES doesn't
support Mac clients yet.  You get the point.  Anyway, that's not cc:Mail's
problem, so to speak.)

We've been using MS Mail for PC Networks in house (even as I write I use the
DOS version!) for some time, and it has been reliable across platforms in
production for us, even with heavy Mac usage.  Just no frills.  The gateways
we have up are SMTP and MCI, and these have worked well, though with the
occasional hiccup.  The SMTP gateway does UUENCODE/UUDECODEing of
attachments automatically for all clients, a nice feature that I understand
is NOT available in the VINES SMTP gateway.  There are MHS, X.400, and
perhaps a few other gateways, but I've not used them.  cc:Mail seems to have
a similar set of gateways.

cc:Mail also has a more integrated StreetTalk support (can read or synch
with ST on some interval basis), though I'd be interested in hearing from
someone else how well this works in practice.  MS Mail knows nothing about
VINES (or NetWare or LM for that matter!), and could care less as far as I
can tell.  Then there's the version that comes with Windows for Workgroups,
which may or may not be totally compatible with the regular MS Mail.  I can't
comment further, since I'm under NDA on this.

On the Mac-specific version of MS Mail, which supports all the nice stuff
like forms, etc.:  it does NOT directly read the MS Mail for PC Networks
mail store or use it's MTA (a DOS machine moving mail around), but I believe
there is a gateway between the two (has to have MHS inbetween?).  I've not
tested this configuration, but it seems to work, if you don't need PC users
and Mac users with exactly the same features or seeing the same mailboxes.

Unfortunately, lots of Mac 3rd Party products have written mail extensions to
the Mac specific MS Mail, but not to the MS Mail for PC Networks Mac front
end (ie, old Network Courier's APIs), so I miss getting mail automatically
sent from the many apps that would be able to via MS Mail or QuickMail.  I
hope OCE and VIM fix this, but it's not clear that MS will support these, so
we're just waiting around.

Read our December issue for the official word on these products from our
labs.  We'll also be testing CE QuickMail when their MHS direct versions for
all platforms are available sometime early next year.  WP Office mail also
crosses these platforms.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We evaluated Microsoft Mail for our enterprise mail system.  We did not go
with it because there was no connectivity between their Mac and PC mail
products (which were developed by separate companies that Microsoft
boughtout).  The PC version runs on VINES as an ordinary file based
application, buthas no integration with VINES or StreetTalk.  We also
evaluated cc:Mail, VINES Mail and QuickMail from CE Software.  We went with
QuickMail because it offered the best combination of features,
interoperability and multiple platform support at the time.  This decision
was significantly driven by the fact that we have a very large installed base
of Macintosh.  Our hope is that CE Software will recognize the benefits of
Banyan's Intelligent Messaging and front-end it with a QuickMail client.

Mike Crist
TRW
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU