Re: And so it begins...

From: Tom Jedrzejewicz

A radical thought ... how about Google Mail (aka gmail) for your
domain? It is very cheap, and as for dealing with mail alone (tasks
and contacts aside) it blows away the contenders. And it supports POP
and IMAP clients, so you can download your messages if you choose.

Nope. Personally, I couldn't imagine entrusting my business to Gmail. It
might work for some people, but I wouldn't even consider it.

As to the server, is there any reason you did not consider using a
hosting service? Cost may or may not be an issue; there was a long
discussion about a hosting service and it's "ROI" calculation earlier
this month. As a business owner, do you really have time to deal with
this issue? It certainly doesn't contribute to revenue, does it?
--> We are Exchange and Outlook here, but if I had to do it again I
would host in a heartbeat.

I don't use a hosting server because I have way too many things I want to
try. I may be a business owner, but my primary business is as an educator
and a solutions provider, and everything I learn setting up my servers is
gold, absolute gold, in that business.

Moreover, few hosting sites will give me the flexibility I need. Most may
run phpBB, some even run MediaWiki. Few run Deki Wiki. By running my own
servers, I have much more control.

As to the client, I hated Outlook until I purchased the ClearContext
"information management system" that sits on top of Outlook. Now I
love it. It does automatic prioritization very well, manages threading
reasonably well, and really does allow me to use Outlook as a "PIM"
instead of an email reader.

No desire to buy a third-party package to sit on top of a piece of software
that may or may not be backwards compatible with the next release. I'm
trying to get away from Microsoft for my mission critical applications, at
least as far as Internet connectivity. Even though it was eventually
resolved and it's not directly related to Outlook, the whole business with
Office SP3 not opening older versions of documents was the last straw for
me.

Joe