Slashdot Mirror
University Migrating Students to Windows Live Mail?
An anonymous reader wonders: "My University has begun a migration of student email services to Windows Live Mail. All students will be forced onto the system by the end of the semester, but it doesn't support POP or IMAP. Because of that limitation, the only freely available mail client it supports is Windows Live Desktop, which is only available on Windows and I'm worried its ads might be vulnerable to malware just like the ones in Live Messenger. I depend on my mail client and I am concerned about this, because we're not allowed to forward our mail but are responsible for information received there from the University and classes, I'm not on a Windows machine, and I don't have the time to regularly check for web-mail, during the day." What are the pros and cons of such a move for a mid-sized or large college? If you were in charge of the communications of a such a university, would you outsource [please note the vendor neutrality, here] your e-mail?
Has anyone else's tech department migrated to Windows Live Mail? Why did they make that decision, and how did it work out for the students? For those of us who have already switched our accounts with no way to revert, what ways exist to get around the lack of POP and still use a client? Is there any hope we can get the University to change back or Microsoft to implement POP before the semester's end? How does your University manage their email?"
The program is still in beta (why the university is going with a beta product I have no idea).l beta&locale=en-us
Use this form to contact them and tell them what you want (pop, imap support, or whatever).
http://feedback.msn.com/eform.aspx?productkey=mai
Outsourcing mail makes sense, but outsourcing to a service that doesn't support POP or IMAP doesn't.
Your university might want to consider outsourcing to Google Mail...
Don't waste your time asking about it on Slashdot. You should be writing to the president of your University and make him aware of your concerns. If they don't change, transfer to another college.
Which university?
Well, those are my immediate thoughts.
When word gets out what University is comtemplating
this, well, I would not want to be associated with
the decision.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
I know people are going to think I'm flaming...
But:
- Shut up.
- Don't worry about your email.
- Focus on your education.
- Don't make webmail out to be more complicated than it is, all you gotta do is click on a bookmark and type your password into a box.
- The Windows Live Mail team put extensive effort into making this a product that got past the "Optimized for IE" barrier that past MS shit tended to do.
Just stop worrying about something so trivial, let the Uni IT department do their job, and focus on getting yourself through college and into the real world where you can make a difference on shit such as this later on.
I work at a mid-size university and we outsource student email services to a state run provider. From my experience as both an IT admin and a student, I find that most student's don't use their campus provided email anyway......rather resorting to using their own personal accounts with hotmail, google, etc... The wise thing to do in my opinion is provide some sort of email service (outsourced is fine) for the small percent of students who actually use it, and allow student's to submit their own email addresses to the campus database.......which would then get loaded into the 'official' campus address book for use by faculty and other students.......
I work at a University where Exchange dominates proceedings, like many other institutions. Watching staff and students stampede away from it when they realise there is an IMAP alternative when they are told about it (fine yes Exchange supports IMAP but the Uni's implementation does not) is quite heartening.
If they tried this at my institution there would be riots quite frankly - does everyone in your CS department run Windows? Even in the Biology departments not everyone runs Windows! I certainly couldn't accept this kind of situation occurring for staff, so I wouldn't therefore accept it occurring for students. In a world where the concept of choice is so readily bandied about as being 'a good thing' this is a retrograde step, regardless of who the vendor is.
Of course many of the students and staff already forward their email en masse to Gmail and either store it/deal with it there..
I don't read your sig, why do you read mine?
If I were in a position of authority over a University network, would I outsource the email? Absolutely.
Would I outsource it to Microsoft? Not a chance in hell.
I'd find a company whose primary focus is email. That way I could expect some kind of service.
As with any project, you have to determine the specific requirements before you can even THINK of looking at vendors.
#1. Must support pop3 - will test using clients X, Y & Z.
#2. Must support imap - will test using clients X, Y & Z.
#3. Must support 1 & 2 with encryption - will test using clients X, Y & Z.
etc.
It is the requirements that make or break projects. Determine the requirements and how you'll be testing to see if those requirements will be met and THEN you can start looking at which vendors can meet those requirements (and testing to see that they actually DO meet them).
Why can't they just offer POP service to those who want it?
Because then you could use non-Microsoft products to access your mail.
Google and Microsoft will advertise if you don't pay them, as well they should. Getting a free service from a company isn't "outsourcing".
Outsourcing means you pay market rates for the service. Then, your students won't be subjected to advertising.
(As an aside, the ads are easy to kill.)
It's funny that Americans say 'communism' when they refer to a centrally planned economy in a totalitarian government. Of course, there's nothing centrally planned or totalitarian about everyone using Windows.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.