Thunderbird

June 21, 2006

Jon Atherton, Dan BartholomewCIT/IS

http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/email/thunderbird/

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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: S&O: Messaging

Client Support (backline): CIT: IS: P&D

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/Thunderbird_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 CIT’s 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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Comparison of various mail clients

Feature Eudora Thunderbird

/Mozilla Outlook Mulberry Pegasus Opera

Cross Platform Win/Mac/Linux

Y/Y/n Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y Y/N/N Y/Y/?

Kerberos Y Y N Y N N SSL Y Y Y Y Y Y Authenticated SMTP Y Y Y Y Y Y POP Y Y Y Y Y Y IMAP Y Y Y Y Y Y Standard Files (recoverability)

Y Y N Y N Y

LDAP (eduPerson) Y Y (V1.5) N Y N No LDAP Support! Multiple Accounts/Personalities

Y Y Y Y Y Y

Unicode/UTF-8 N Y Y Y Y Y Junk/Spam (Bayesian Filter)

Y Y Y Y N Y

Import from Eudora Y Y Y N Y

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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 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• 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

Questions?