I'm a few days late responding to this , but I must be one of the few people on the list who has actually administered both FirstClass and Exchange systems. We use FirstClass for our student mail system and Exchange for staff. A few years ago we moved the lecturing staff from MS Mail to FirstClass, but over the last few years have moved them again - to Exchange. This was all difficult, in my experience there are no easy migration or upgrade paths when you use FirstClass. The whole topic of FirstClass has generated many hours of discussion and much heat over the years. There are people here who love it and those who hate it.
FirstClass is a niche product. If you need what it does, it's great. It has a wonderfully efficient light client which gives really superb performance to remote users. The fact that all the processing is done on the server means that the client is easy to install, and there's very little users can do to make it go wrong (unlike Outlook!). Our staff users hated it at first, but we've encountered a lot of opposition from many of them when we moved them back to Exchange. They especially don't like OWA! FirstClass is highly idiosyncratic and doesn't behave like any other mail system you've seen. This has some real disadvantages; there's not a lot of expertise out in the wide world, and any other software suppliers probably won't have heard of it. You won't find any anti-virus software for it, but on the other hand there are no viruses which are designed to use its address book. Users can't export mail or address book entries to other systems. Calendaring is pretty dire. Multiple servers are a PITA - you can't move users between servers easily. You can't do on-line backups from a single copy (although it has it's own mirroring system, we've never used it because of the size of our databases). We were promised seamless integration wth MS Mail (and later with Exchange), but this has always been a struggle. There isn't a decent equivalent of the KB, so it can be difficult to locate relevant documentation of bugs etc. The conferencing side is powerful. It's a different way of working, until you've used it, you can't appreciate the differences, and it's fundamental to the philosophy of FirstClass. I'll just mention the possibility of customising users' FC desktops by group membership for a start. Other functions that FirstClass excels at are "history" - lecturers appreciate an easy way of seeing which students have read their messages - and "unsend", which works perfectly, unlike in Outlook. I'd be wary about depending on the future of this product. It's changed hands several times over the 5 years we've been using it, and although it has improved substantially over the years, the things you really want are always going to be in the next version - which is always delivered late. They have a small development team, which means that they are dependent on a few expert individuals. If you have more specific questions mail me direct. Cathy Jackson Sheffield Hallam University, UK -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Marty Gavin Sent: 31 March 2004 17:58 To: Exchange Discussions Subject: (OT - FirstClass), customizing Outlook Today & programmatically Outlook (shortcut) Bar Hi Everyone, What we've got: Single Exchange 2000 SP3 on Windows 2000 Server SP4, around 450 mailboxes, multiple sites over T1 ATM WAN links. Migrating next week to Exchange 2003 on Windows Server 2003, but may not be relevant to questions asked here.... Background: Our organization just got a new administrator a few months ago who is pushing to have us dump Exchange and migrate to a product called FirstClass (www.firstclass.com). For the record, I like Exchange heaps. He's been here a short time and is insisting there's a real shortcoming in collaboration, and that the solution is to move to this small-time, formerly Mac-only, BBS-with-calendaring-and-smtp-stapled-on solution. Our 5-person IT dept. has discussed this internally and while trying to keep an open mind (since we can't really veto this), it seems as though most everything said new guy wants to accomplish could be done in the Public Folders, maybe with scripting commonly-used shortcuts to users' desktops (KiXtart, no worries). The kicker is that this FirstClass product has a really simple user interface, beginning with their own little desktop-in-a-window. The K.I.S.S. rule seems to be critical here. (That, and the fact we've already paid for everything, including new hardware and licensing to migrate to Exchange 2003). Questions: 1. Does anyone have any horror-stories about using FirstClass? Or moving to FirstClass. Anything. I could use some feedback, facts, examples, hearsay, etc. 2. Does anyone use customized outlook today start (html) pages? We've found a few examples online, and the white paper & samples in the 2000 ORK. Could anyone link to more samples, or some best practices? 3. Is there any way to script or otherwise programmatically change the Outlook (shortcut) Bar? 4. How do you search the Exchange Discussions list archives? Thanks! Marty Gavin MCP, A+ Desktop Support Holmdel Township Public Schools 732.946.1058 office 732.834.0089 facsimile Help Fight Spam | Smart Board Activities | Outlook Tutorials for Education | Office XP training & resources | Microsoft Education Programs | Windows 2000 help | Our Help Desk | Mac Office 2001 help & resources | more links "Sometimes when reading Goethe I have the paralyzing suspicion that he is trying to be funny." - Guy Davenport | more quotes (Can't view HTML? Just visit http://www.holmdel.k12.nj.us/faculty/mgavin/signature.htm) _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=exchange&text_mode=&lang=english To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. 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