Exchange Server: The Limitations of Non-Outlook Email Clients

The Exchange servers also support POP and IMAP connections. Therefore, non-Outlook clients such as Entourage or Thunderbird can be used. However, this will limit the benefits of the Exchange service.

Mac Email Client Limitations

Thunderbird Email Client Limitations

Comparing features for Mac client computers in Exchange Server environments

The following Mac client options are not mutually exclusive. One of the benefits of using the Microsoft Exchange Server is that the most important user data is always available on the server. The following chart provides a comparison of the features in each option.

Comparing options for Mac client computers in Exchange Server environments

Criteria of comparison	Microsoft Entourage 2004	Microsoft Outlook 2001 for Mac	Microsoft Entourage 2001	Outlook Web Access	Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac (RDC)	Virtual PC 7.0
Client operating system supported	Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later	Mac OS 8.6 – 9.x or Mac OS X (10.2.x and earlier) Classic*	Mac OS 8.6 – 9.x or Mac OS X Classic required for Entourage 2001	All Mac OS	Mac OS X 10.1 or later	Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later
Client software required	Microsoft Entourage 2004	Microsoft Outlook 2001	Microsoft Entourage 2001	Internet Explorer 5.x	RDC (and Outlook for Windows on the RDC machine)	Microsoft Virtual PC 7.0 for Mac, Windows, Outlook for Windows
Additional server-side requirements	Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 (with Service Pack 2 or later) or later. The following protocols need to be enabled: HTTP DAV (Outlook Web Access), and LDAP.	None	Internet Messaging Protocol (IMAP) needs to be enabled	Outlook Web Access needs to be enabled	Operating system software support for Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)	None
Support for offline access to data and reminders	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
100% same experience as using Outlook on a Windows-based computer	Similar	Similar	No	No	Yes	Yes
Support for handheld synchronization	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Support for scheduling and delegated group calendaring	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Support for Exchange-based e-mail	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Support for HTML mail	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Support for other e-mail protocols such as POP, IMAP, and Hotmail	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Support for .PST files	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Support for delegation	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Support for GAL directory search	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
More Mac-like	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
Requires knowledge of Windows	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Can be used with the other solutions simultaneously	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Notes:

Classic refers to software included with Mac OS X that you can use to run Mac OS 9 (or earlier) applications.
The RDC features are compared using Windows Outlook 2000 or later.

Information quoted from Mactopia. For more information, visit:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/support.aspx?pid=exchange.

Thunderbird Email Client Limitations

Using Thunderbird as your email client will limit such Exchange service benefits as the Calendar feature. Notification of meeting requests will be received as text messages. Sending an acceptance reply in Thunderbird to the requester does not schedule the meeting in your calendar. You must use Outlook Web Access (OWA) or Outlook to enter the meeting in your calendar.