I'll be sticking with Gmail. Thanks for nothing, Penn.

I don't know why some of you are crying. If you already have a Gmail account, just use the damn Gmail account that you already have! It's not like Gmail was going to offer any extra features (from what I've read, at least). Stop complaining! It's not the end of the world!! You already have it anyway!!!

Dude, people... If you want Gmail: Step 1) Set Gmail to POP your sas email. You don't even have to set up forwarding. Step 2) Set up a Gmail identity so that you can send mail that looks like it came from your sas account. Step 3) Stop whining. If you want Microsoft: Step 1) Wait until the summer. Step 2) Stop whining.

Wow some of you sound like complete idiots. If you love G-mail so much...keep using Gmail. Starting in about 1995 a little function called "Forward to another account" became available to emailers. Now you have the choice to select one of three different services( Webmail,Penn Live and Your beloved G-mail) as opposed to the two that you would have had if Penn signed with Google. Give me a Break

They made this decision two months late and they still fucked it up. Amazing.

I understand that you all really enjoy your Gmail accounts, and I do too. However, there is a small caveat embedded into the user agreement that everybody glosses over without any attention to legal detail. From what I understand, Google not only reserves the right to release any and all of your email in the case of a general government investigation (meaning not a direct inquiry into your activities), they also consider your email to be THEIR property. Microsoft does not do this. Do you care about the privacy of your communications? Penn may hold your emails as well, but I would guess that everybody reading this newspaper has a closer, more trusting connection to Penn than they do with Google. Who would you rather trust holding your email messages?

Every e-mail service out there will hand over your e-mails to investigators. Most of them hold on to your e-mail even after you delete it. Penn does it, Google does it and Microsoft does it. The moral of the story? E-mails are sent using someone else's private property (servers, wires, fiber-optics, etc.). Don't expect them to be ultra-private.

Google is running a survey for students collecting feedback on your current school solutions. We would love to collect your thoughts and feelings to help improve our education offering. http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/landing_pages/apps_edu.html

why is it that you want penn to pay for something that everyone already gets for free? i know everyone likes to hate microsoft and all, but, honestly, most of that has nothing to do with the quality of their products. to my knowledge, the microsoft exchange server that wharton has been using for its webmail has never crashed in the 4 years that i've used it. i'm not even sure why they're replacing it to begin with. i love google as much as the next guy, but let's not be emotional about this. windows live is a great platform. how can you be so upset when it doesn't even appear that you're familiar with the different products nor does anyone know how it will ultimately be implemented. the point regarding google's questionable privacy policies is well worth looking into (and it goes beyond just what happens with our data in case of some legal proceedings). i guess what i'm trying to say is that you should get off google's balls. [QUOTE id="f8fdc08a-79b8-4b52-aa54-76ab05061972"]What?! So many students already use Gmail, which is why switching to Google makes sense. The WHOLE POINT of the Google services is that they *are* the standard (and quite popular) Google services, but they would be hooked-up to our upenn.edu e-mail addresses. The people in charge must be stupid if they don't recognize this. "SAS Vice Dean of Administration and Finance Ramin Sedehi said that while both companies negotiated in good faith, officials chose Microsoft in the end because the package Google offered to universities did not include anything not already available to the public." So, basically, we're going with Microsoft simply because it's different and contains unnamed features that may (or may not) be useful and popular. Stupid, stupid, Stupid. Hey, Sedehi! The whole advantage of Google is that they take the publicly available (and popular) services and plug them into our upenn.edu e-mail addresses. Not to mention allowing people to share documents and chat on Penn's own Google-operated network. Just because Steve Ballmer called your colleagues and made you feel important (that's what was reported in the DP a few months ago) doesn't mean you need to return the flattery by giving Microsoft a contract. Many students stopped using Microsoft's services and switched to Gmail for a reason, boneheads. It looks like I will just have to keep auto-forwarding my e-mail to Gmail.[/QUOTE]

I agree with all the above who think this was the WRONG decision. And to those saying, "well just use gmail if you like it"-- the problem with that logic is there are definite advantages to everyone at Penn being on gmail-- such as the ability to see who else is logged in for quick chatting, easy to use address book, and the easy, flexible calendar. Microsoft is everything but flexible. And everything but reliable... we are replacing Microsoft with Microsoft...whoopdee doo.

As if crashing Webmail and a VERY delayed switch were not enough, the administration then makes the wrong choice and chooses Microsoft over Google. I can't believe this.

What?! So many students already use Gmail, which is why switching to Google makes sense. The WHOLE POINT of the Google services is that they *are* the standard (and quite popular) Google services, but they would be hooked-up to our upenn.edu e-mail addresses. The people in charge must be stupid if they don't recognize this. "SAS Vice Dean of Administration and Finance Ramin Sedehi said that while both companies negotiated in good faith, officials chose Microsoft in the end because the package Google offered to universities did not include anything not already available to the public." So, basically, we're going with Microsoft simply because it's different and contains unnamed features that may (or may not) be useful and popular. Stupid, stupid, Stupid. Hey, Sedehi! The whole advantage of Google is that they take the publicly available (and popular) services and plug them into our upenn.edu e-mail addresses. Not to mention allowing people to share documents and chat on Penn's own Google-operated network. Just because Steve Ballmer called your colleagues and made you feel important (that's what was reported in the DP a few months ago) doesn't mean you need to return the flattery by giving Microsoft a contract. Many students stopped using Microsoft's services and switched to Gmail for a reason, boneheads. It looks like I will just have to keep auto-forwarding my e-mail to Gmail.

yet another comment based on total ignorance of the products being considered. as i mentioned before, wharton's microsoft exchange server has been nothing but stable. and as was previously covered in the dp, the sas crash-prone server is a sun microsystems product. as for your other point, i think everyone who has been in a professional setting where community tools that you mention come in handy would agree that calendar tools in microsoft's products are second to none. and if you haven't noticed, most people don't use google for instant messaging/quick chatting (pew/internet: 37% AOL, 33% Yahoo and 25% MSN). all of these are interoperable within windows live. it is such ignorance that will likely prevent penn live from being as useful as it could be, not the actual product. i think this might be a good area for one of those factual and nonbiased studies that dp does once in a while (eg its recent series on philadelphia mayorial candidates). [QUOTE id="88137bfe-6e8e-4bd6-810e-8684b70793ca"]I agree with all the above who think this was the WRONG decision. And to those saying, "well just use gmail if you like it"-- the problem with that logic is there are definite advantages to everyone at Penn being on gmail-- such as the ability to see who else is logged in for quick chatting, easy to use address book, and the easy, flexible calendar. Microsoft is everything but flexible. And everything but reliable... we are replacing Microsoft with Microsoft...whoopdee doo.[/QUOTE]

BJ Clinton, Are you seriously using the fact that just because the Wharton server hasn't crashed then we should switch to microsoft? Believe me, I doubt a Google server would crash. This is not about hating Microsoft or diminishing the quality of their products. To those who suggest the blatantly stupid argument of "just POP your email to Gmail," someone has already mentioned the advantages of having the whole campus using it. Gmail and Google's interfaces in general are simpler and much better than Microsoft's. Privacy risk? Do you honestly believe your privacy is safer with Microsoft than Google? Both of them keep records of messages even after you delete them, and both of them could release your information if needed by a legal situation. Bottom line: After being two months late, the administration made the wrong decision.

i don't think that any reasonable person expects any real privacy or information security. but, in my opinion, there's are very different strategic goals between google and microsoft. obviously, they're both out to make as much money as possible. but google openly makes it a point to aggregate and store/organize ALL information on the internet. they have a very clear strategy of leveraging that information to create the best advertising system (which i happen to think is brilliant). my comments regarding the wharton server were in reply to the comments about how after all the crashes that webmail has experienced over the past years, penn still decided to stick with microsoft. i was simply pointing out that the crashes were not caused my microsoft software. and again, i would like to point out that businesses have been using microsoft products for years now to create the kind of communication and cooperation that you now claim is only possible through google's platform. i think google has great products, but i still think that penn would get more for its money with microsoft. [QUOTE id="b15a8c27-fdb3-481f-b38d-b14da0215dc7"]BJ Clinton, Are you seriously using the fact that just because the Wharton server hasn't crashed then we should switch to microsoft? Believe me, I doubt a Google server would crash. This is not about hating Microsoft or diminishing the quality of their products. To those who suggest the blatantly stupid argument of "just POP your email to Gmail," someone has already mentioned the advantages of having the whole campus using it. Gmail and Google's interfaces in general are simpler and much better than Microsoft's. Privacy risk? Do you honestly believe your privacy is safer with Microsoft than Google? Both of them keep records of messages even after you delete them, and both of them could release your information if needed by a legal situation. Bottom line: After being two months late, the administration made the wrong decision.[/QUOTE]

windows live is so much better, msn was reasonably cr*p but, windows live is way better. Yes, Google is OK but, we don't need to make such a big deal over the issue, build a bridge and get over it!