> Great topic-
>
> ...Email? Why setup and email server and see the tech behind it or how it
> works? Just get a free Gmail account or Yahoo! account? The school the
> student is in probably did that too. Webserver? Why setup your own
> webserver
> when we can just host it at Google Sites or something? Sure, the
> functionality is limited but if you don't know that, a website = what
> Google
> Sites or another cloud service provides for you. It isn't exactly what I
> want, but it is free and took me a few minutes to setup and I can abandon
> it
> if I grow tired of it.
>
But how many of us ever really set up our own email server? If we were at a
university back in the beginning days of the Internet, we used Pine on the
mail server that our institution set up for us. We set up squat. At home we
used Eudora and dial-up to work with those messages offline. No server set
up there, just setting up the software on our end to interact with it.
Later on, when we left those institutions, but still had a taste of the
Internet in our mouths, we signed up with ISPs who had their own mail and
web servers. Once again WE didn't have to do any of the back end work. Sure,
we could write our own HTML code and FTP it up to our space on their web
server, but we didn't have to set it up ourselves. And then when software
like Claris Homepage, Adobe Go Live, and Dreamweaver came out, the need for
most people to know HTML went out the window.
What I'm trying to say is that the average user has NEVER had to know how
everything worked behind the curtain. I worked for Computer Services at a
large university, and my job was to help people with their projects and
learn how to do email, it was the job of another department to make sure
that things were running in the background so that I could do my job.
Ah...one of the reasons why I haven't used Google Sites for myself is that
I'm a big control freak, and want my webpage to look "just so." As a result,
I own my own domain, have it hosted by a hosting company, and use KompoZer
(an open source web design tool) to do my pages. My wife's needs aren't as
fussy as mine, and she can get what she needs by using Blogger. Does she
have to know HTML (or know someone who does) to get what she wants? Not
anymore. Maybe she shouldn't have to.
And maybe we shouldn't force her, and others like her, to just because we're
a bunch of geeks who love that stuff.
Frankly, I resisted using Gmail for years because it seemed like a throwback
to the days of having to be online in order to read your email using Pine.
At least with Eudora, you could read it offline. But then I found myself
using different computers in different places, and found myself in places
where you were blocked from sending mail through their SMTP port...and Gmail
finally added some features that I wanted from Eudora.
Then I made the switch, and haven't looked back. It really is an improvement
for me.
--
keg
========================================
Keith E Gatling
Email: keith@gatling.us
Blog: http://wordfromg.blogspot.com
Website: http://www.gatling.us/keith
The fact that I'm open-minded doesn't mean that I have to agree with you.
========================================
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