On 9/9/2008, Adam Tauno Williams ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > Yes, Thunderbird works with roaming profiles; albeit rather badly. > Thunderbird has no auto-configuration mechanism so every user's > account(s) need to be setup manually and it is prone to making HUGE > cache files if not setup carefully.
So set it up correctly... ;) I always set the local imap mail store to the Local Settings folder so it doesn't get copied with the roaming profile. Worst case scenario is their pc dies and they have to re-download all of the message headers the first time they access their mail again. No biggie. I also use www.scheduleworld.com to keep tbird contacts/calendar in sync across multiple machines (home/work) and phones... works very well, and their is an OTA client for almost all phones. > All-in-all it is a rather lousy IMAP client compared to others. In my opinion, Outlook is MUCH worse IMAP client than Thunderbird. We've been using Thunderbird exclusively on 60+ machines for years, *with* roaming profiles*, with nary a hiccup. I keep copies of Outlook (2003) and Outlook Express because I do support these for people who want to use them from home, and frankly, these are the only clients I ever get complaints about, and if the user takes me up on my standard 'why don't you try Thunderbird' response, they always are happy they did. I have heard that Outlook 2007 has improved IMAP support (*finally* has direct support for saving Sent messages to the IMAP server), but have no experience with it. Thunderbird ain't perfect, but it is an EXCELLENT IMAP client. > Why not just stick with Outlook? Your likely to have a much easier > time with the users if they are used to Outlook (and you already paid > for it anyway). You are correct that one drawback is there is no way to config TBird using Active Directory Group Policies... I'd dearly love to see support for this someday for bith TBird and Firefox - and a proper signature manager too. As for IMAP servers, I much prefer dovecot to Cyrus - MUCH easier to setup, and better performance too imho... Cyrus has more features - FOR NOW (dovecot is catching up very fast, and will probably surpass it within a year or two), but is 'not fun' to install/configure/support for anyone new to it. I totally agree with the rest of the comments though. We don't use Exchange here because the boss refused to pay for Server/Exchange/Office many years ago (back in 2000), and told me to 'find an alternative' (to the $40,000 it would have cost for licenses for everything for 50+ users). That was my forced introduction to the world of free software. If I were the OP, and assuming he already has Exchange (and the Exchange CALs) and Office, I'd stick with what he has (the licenses for just Server and CALs won't be too bad). On the other hand - if he is using pirated software, and it might cost $20k+ to get legal, then using postfix+dovecot+thunderbird/lightning, or even one of the groupware alternatives, might be worth considering. -- Best regards, Charles
