baldysblog.co.uk

This essay is not just for the “Geeks” and therefore a little bit of background might help those who are not. In the “Corporate Space” there are a number of email systems but the two big hitters are IBM with Lotus Notes/Domino and Microsoft with Outlook/MS Exchange. In reality and in no small part due to user familiarity, Outlook is probably far more popular than Notes although in my view Domino/Notes is a far better corporate tool.

However, with the recent arrival of Windows 7 and for me the opportunity to overhaul my three main workstations, I thought that I might share something with my imaginary audience to do with email that might be worth a thought for now or in the future and it is the sort of thing not often covered because it has to do with the open Source Movement = Free Software !

Over the Years…

I have used many email systems or at least, many generations of the main ones simply because working as a freelance IT Contractor, you do as you move from one company to another. Once the job is done and you have moved on from the company you were doing a project for, you have no interest in retaining the “work related” emails. However, if you have been there for a time, inevitably there will be some personal ones and technical research stuff you did that would be worth keeping so you get in the habit of forwarding copies of these to your own home email address.

The problem often comes though when at home, you change your PC or decide to upgrade your Operating System, you need to copy and back up all your data, including your email. In simple terms and providing you stuck with Microsoft, either through their upgrade process or by using third party tools such as “Outback” (http://www.ajsystems.com), you can do simple back up and a restore on your new PC or, upgraded one but it is an effort and costs a little money to buy the software.

Alternatively and quite popular, your “home e-mail” could be web mail such as Microsoft Live, Google or Yahoo so that your mail is “out there on the Cloud” rather than on your local PC which is what all of them are betting the farm on, not so sure myself on that one !

In the Commercial World

Obviously inside any company where hardware is replaced, staff join and leave all the time, setting up PCs is pretty much a daily task for the IT Support Department and therefore, most tasks are automated. A PC will be given a standard image including all user software in minutes, the Company data that a worker needs is sitting on “Servers” ready to be downloaded according to their job function and security clearance but again, in minutes so, what about e-mail ?

Basically that is pretty much the same because there are “Mail servers” which are really like electronic post offices which send and receive email to the outside world and forward it all internally whilst also, keeping a copy of each mail user’s In and Out-boxes and stuff on its hard drives. Consequently and even though the “user” may have a copy locally on their hard drive, if the hard drive fails, the IT Staff can recover all the e-mails with little problem but, it is not a facility we tend to have at home.

Open Source Software

When most people think of Open Source, they tend to associate it, if at all, with Linux and yes, that is a prime example but, not the only one because there are very many “Free Programs” that also run under Windows such as the web browser “Firefox” ( http://www.mozilla.com/en-US ).

Although I like Microsoft Office, I have used it (or at least Word and Excel), since the days of DOS, have a copy of Office 2007 that was given to me and under commercial pressure they have bought the price down, I don’t use it any more, I use Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org ). In simple terms it (OO), is very good and does as much if not more than MS Office with which it is compatible although watch the formats you save your work in, the default is .odt and as most people commercially will be using MS Word, always save in .doc format. As a WP and Spreadsheet program which is what most people use, it is excellent, does PowerPoint as good plus… Well the real big plus is that it is free although any donations will be appreciated but, it is being constantly worked on by programmers from right across the Globe.

Back to E-Mail

I have run my own Domino Mail and Application Server at home (sad git !) but the reality is that is silly and overkill for a single user. Although I understand that Microsoft is going to open up its .PST file format that lies at the heart of Outlook in its various forms, the historical problem has always been people keeping to “propriety” file formats to lock users in to one mail system or another. I got fed up with this and in 2004 I decided to make a switch to an Open Source mail client, Thunderbird ( http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird ), yes that is Mozilla again !

In basic form, it is nowhere as ‘pretty’ as full blooded Outlook included in MS Office 2007 but, there are loads of alternative “skins” – the way it looks to you and I ! Plus just as with Firefox there are loads of plug ins and additions to play with, Calendar and Diary, ToDo Lists, you name it, there is something there for you and all for free plus, it is quicker.

When I first started and because I know my way around under the hood of an OS like Windows, it didn’t take me too long to find the “Thunderbird IN/OUT boxes” and so that once copied, I could restore them to another PC but it was a totally manual process but is no longer. Thanks to a program called MozBackup (http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com ) which was developed in the Czech Republic and is just a wonderful bit of programming.

If Just That …

It can restore all your Firefox (web browser), Favourites complete with your individual “Web site login preferences” which as I work across three workstations and a laptop, is highly useful because I can ensure that they are all synchronised locally but how that works is important to understand. I use Internet Banking on all my accounts but, who knows when a PC gets stolen ?

Consequently, no user names and passwords are stored on any of my PCs but often, there is a “start of a sequence” generated by the site which will include an account reference of one kind or another which are part of the login process, Mozbackup will remember that but not beyond, which is very smart !

I have a small network of computers at home, each PC is dedicated to one particular task so the truth is that generally only one will be switched on at any one time as I use that PC and its software -de dah. However, I do have what is generally known as a SAN, for that read “common data storage” and so if I was working on PC “A”, before I shut it down, I could back up my email to the SAN. Open up PC “C” and update its mail file from the SAN and I’m completely up to date and when I shut it down, use MozBackup to update the mail file on the SAN… but that could be any external drive including a USB one.