Last June 2011, we notified the user community that we will no longer support Eudora as an email client program as of June 30, 2012. The transition has been happening for users throughout this year. For many people this is a very tense topic of discussion. We have been flexible in our approach to email as with most of our programs. Eudora was a much loved and highly acclaimed mail client in its day. Qualcomm stopped support several years ago. Their product does not conform to some of today’s standards for email configuration. Consequently, support has become more and more difficult. Additionally, newer versions of operating systems cannot run the old program. Mac 10.7 (the current version of the Mac OS) cannot run Eudora at all.
Users do have options when leaving Eudora. Many who have made the change find that, once the initial adjustment period passed, some of the newer features available in current programs were nice to have.
What is wrong with Eudora?
Eudora does not comply with current standards for storing and encoding email. It makes it very difficult to separate out attachments and move email between systems. The database can become corrupt and repair can be cumbersome since there are no new versions nor support available. As mentioned above, it is becoming increasingly difficult to install the program on new operating systems.
Why shouldn’t I keep email on my computer? It is safer and more private.
Mail stored on your computer instead of left on server is vulnerable to hard drive failure and totally reliant upon local backup. In addition, our current mobile lifestyle demands mail stored in a single location accessed from many devices. Local mail does not allow for this.
Because many people leave their desktops on and email application logged in or have it automatically login on startup, it is not more secure than on the server. ITS has tight internal control over who can administer the email server, processes for those few individuals regarding mailbox access, and severe penalties for any breach of confidentiality including termination.
I don’t want to use Outlook.
We are changing the underlying system (Exchange) that runs mail on Outlook which is improving the overall performance. In addition, that change allows for a very user friendly web experience on any computer and any browser. This makes that system much more appealing. Nonetheless, Outlook is not the only option and users should speak to their Desktop Support Specialist or Academic Computing Manager to make the right decision.
Can I use Google?
At this time, there are no plans to move faculty and staff email accounts to Google. Doing individual accounts is discouraged since cross functionality of other services on which we depend, such as calendaring, is highly problematic.