> Chris writes:
> >The Windows GUI does not have a spelling checker.
>
> I'm not an OpenDesk expert, but the OpenMail version of the OMGUI
client
> for Windows has a spell checker added to it in the latest OpenMail
> (GR3 - Desktop '96) release.  If the OpenDesk and OpenMail clients are
> interchangeable, then you might simply be able to use the OpenMail
client.
>
> These clients are supported on windows 95 and NT as well (at least
with
> OpenMail).
>
> G.
>
 
Hope my long answer doesn't offend anyone. If your *not* interested in
e-mail products from HP (OpenMail and OpenDesk) for HP3000s and HP9000s,
please delete and go on. For vendors of competetive products, please
note we didn't go though a competetive evaluation. We selected OpenMail
because HP gave us a great deal, we thought it would be satisfactory
since HP itself was moving to it, and we had already committed to the
HP9000 platform for e-mail.
 
As many of you know, we here at Xavier are in the process of switching
over to OpenMail. I'm using the OpenMail GUI for Windows now (on Windows
95). It does include a spell checker (in fact, if you use Microsoft
Office, it will use Word's spell checker instead). The UAL and code for
the OpenDesk and OpenMail GUIs are clearly nearly the same. My OpenDesk
GUI from C.02 works just find with OpenMail, but the reverse is not
true. The OpenMail GUI B.04 uses UAL functions that OpenDesk server
doesn't support. I was hoping that that C.03 of OpenDesk would bring it
up to the same version, since it will be a good while before we move all
of our Desk users to OpenMail, but I haven't' gotten the C.03 version as
yet.
 
OpenMail will be brining out an Web broswer client in a new version in
Sept. This will provide all of OpenMail's client functionality though
most any web broswer (HP will support Netscape and Microsoft's browsers
for this purpose). No other software is needed on the client machine. On
the server, you will have to have a http server and cgi capability. I
would guess that we won't see this capability in OpenDesk,
unfortunately. There is another release of OpenMail scheduled for Dec.
that increases Internet capatibility (such as nntp protocol support for
OpenMail's discussion folders).
 
If your committed to supporting an HP9000 already, then OpenMail might
be a good choice for migration from OpenDesk. However, so far it seems
to me that managing the OpenMail message store is a bigger challenge
than managing a Image database for Desk, if you have more that a few
users. It raises many of the same kinds of issues (e.g. spread of the
data across multiple drives and interfaces, etc.). OpenMail adds another
layer of issues by using Unix files for the separate parts of the e-mail
message and requires building non-default Unix file systems to
substantially increase the number of inodes (you need 1 inode for each
file on the file system). To enlarge an OpenMail message store when you
add disc drives, you have to run a program that spreads the files across
all the drives and, reportedly, this program can take a very long time
if you have more than a couple of gigabytes. This is similar to
spreading Image dataset extents across multiple drives, but much slower
(since it works with individual small files instead of a few large
extents of the dataset file).
 
If you have not other reason to use an HP9000, then I'd study the
landscape for e-mail alternatives. OpenMail will be available on NT, by
the way, at some point.
 
Cheers,
Richard ([log in to unmask])
(vist us at http://www.xula.edu/)