Two journalists from ITWorld Canada have put
Exchange Server 2007 through its paces, testing it with a variety of email clients and web browsers.
They discovered a lot of interesting things about the new software’s junk mail catching abilities and security, but what grabbed my attention was the performance of Mail and Safari.
Unsurprisingly, Exchange Server 2007 works best with Outlook 2007.
However other clients were also tested:
Exchange 2007 server is also open for use with other e-mail client access methods, such as Thunderbird (the e-mail counterpart to Firefox) and Microsoft’s older Mac Office e-mail product called Entourage. This subpar access does not include any of the groupware-focused features, such as shared contact, mail, files/folders, group calendars and Microsoft SharePoint services.
The accessibility afforded for Exchange 2007 clients is quite varied. Obtaining simple e-mail access through standard POP3 and IMAP protocols across all clients was easy in our tests.
We used a number of e-mail client applications successfully, including Thunderbird (under Linux , MacOS, and Windows XP/Vista Ultimate), Apple Mail, and Netscape clients all ran successfully and flawlessly.
Good news for Mac users trapped in a Windows work environment. We are still second class citizens, but at least we can communicate with other workers, albeit at a reduced level.
They also tested Exchange Server 2007′s web-based mail service, Office Web Access (OWA) browser, and found that it “worked well” with Safari and Firefox.
The test revealed an odd security flaw:
The OWA browser application when connecting to Exchange 2007 does not support the option to suppress externally referenced content (usually pictures) that are situated on a Web site or other Internet source, letting the mail sender record that the content have been seen/read in the e-mail. This inability to suppress rich (and revealing) content is disturbing, as it leaves this security measure to be handled by third-party applications.
The article
is three pages long. Subsequent sections discuss Exchange Server’s spam catching features and other security failings.email, outlook, exchange server 2007, mail.app, apple mail, thunderbird, entourage, microsoft, productivity, interoperability
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