Microsoft Mail

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Microsoft Mail was a product that provided a mail server and clients for various operating systems. It is the predecessor of Microsoft Exchange .

history

The first version of Microsoft Mail appeared in 1988 and only supported AppleTalk networks. The server had to be operated on a Macintosh ; all operating systems common at the time, including MS-DOS, were supported as clients . This version of Microsoft Mail was sold to StarNine Technologies in late 1995, which Quarterdeck acquired shortly thereafter. Quarterdeck continued the product under the name Quarterdeck Mail for a short time, but quickly abandoned the product with the disappearance of AppleTalk.

To support the then emerging Ethernet networks, Microsoft bought the Canadian company Consumers Software in 1991 along with its Network Courier mail server product and published it under the name Microsoft Mail for PC Networks . The server could be operated on Windows from version 3.0, client software existed for Windows 3.x, MS-DOS, OS / 2 and Macintosh. Windows for Workgroups 3.1 contained a functionality reduced version of Microsoft Mail, which later appeared for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Microsoft also published the Schedule + program for use with Microsoft Mail.

From a technical point of view, Microsoft Mail used a very simple file-sharing system in which clients saved emails as individual files in a shared folder on the server. The individual clients performed the function of the mail transfer agent , while the server acted completely passively and only made the emails stored on it available to the clients. Mails to other Microsoft Mail-based mail servers were managed by a special mail transfer agent called external.exe; this was initially a DOS and later a native OS / 2 program that used the existing OS / 2 subsystem under Windows NT up to Windows 2000 . Mail could also be sent to other mail servers via special gateways , so there were gateways for SMTP and X.400 .

Microsoft Mail was replaced by the newly developed Microsoft Exchange in March 1996, but remained in use for a long time due to certain difficulties in migrating to Exchange.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ IDG Network World Inc: Network World . IDG Network World Inc, September 25, 1995 ( google.de [accessed October 19, 2019]).
  2. ^ IDG Network World Inc: Network World . IDG Network World Inc, September 25, 1995 ( google.de [accessed October 19, 2019]).
  3. ^ InfoWorld Media Group Inc: InfoWorld . InfoWorld Media Group, Inc., January 15, 1996 ( google.de [accessed October 19, 2019]).
  4. ^ InfoWorld Media Group Inc: InfoWorld . InfoWorld Media Group, Inc., January 15, 1996 ( google.de [accessed October 19, 2019]).
  5. ^ Tony Redmond: Microsoft Exchange Server V5.5: Planning, Design, and Implementation . Digital Press, Boston 1998, ISBN 1-55558-213-3 , p. 58
  6. ^ Microsoft Mail: Solid, less graphical . In: Computerworld, 25, No. 34, August 26, 1991, p. 38
  7. ↑ Rick Ayre, Ted Stevenson: The E-Mail Personae: As e-mail software matures, several distinct approaches are evolving — each reflecting the personality of the company that produced it. Which one is right for you? In: PC Magazine, 13, No. 7, April 12, 1994, pp. 279-289