Best E-Mail Software

cc:Mail Is The E-Mail Product Of Choice

There hasn't been any great change in the world of corporate e-mail systems lately; the two major players are waiting to release significant new client/server architected products in 1995. In the meantime, however, Lotus cc:Mail is still the best product of the bunch, and deserves our Well-Connected Award.
cc:Mail supports more client platforms than any other complete e-mail system, including DOS, Windows, Macintosh and Unix. Moreover, it offers remote client support for DOS, Macintosh, and in its most advanced implementation, Windows. Remote access support is offered not only via async and wireless connectivity methods, but also via IPX/SPX and TCP/IP network transports (as are mail router connections). This flexibility is head and shoulders above other products.
cc:Mail can work with any of the common NOS environments, although like most other e-mail systems it does not yet make full use of global directory services such as NetWare NDS, Banyan StreetTalk or NT/LAN Manager Domains. cc:Mail's own directory services can manually import NetWare and other NOS user names and automatically handle a multiple post office network list of user names.
Lotus offers a variety of gateway solutions for cc:Mail, including SMTP and X.400, and its separate Softswitch division can handle other connections. The third-party market has been able to fit in well, offering fax and other gateways.
The biggest knock on cc:Mail is still that it must be taken off-line to reoptimize the e-mail store. This factor apparently will be addressed in the upcoming clien t/server version. It, however, has not stopped Lotus customers from making cc:Mail the most popular e-mail product.

Lotus cc:Mail Desktop for Windows 2.0, $339, Lotus Development Corp., cc:Mail Division, 800 El Camino Real West, Mountain View, CA 94040.
(415) 961-8800; fax (415) 961-0215.

Runners-Up
Microsoft Mail, Microsoft Corp., One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399. (206) 882-8080;
fax (206) 93MSFAX.

Z-Mail, Network Computing
Devices, Z-Code Division, 101 Rowland Way, Suite 300, Novato, CA 94945. (415) 898-8299;
fax (415) 898-8299.