In the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Apple dominated the education market by donating computers to school districts and colleges, and by making many more available at steep discounts. Much of the software that schools needed was available first and finest for the Apple II and then for the Macintosh, and Apple had the institutions hooked. Taking a history lesson from Apple's success, CE Software has just unveiled a plan to put QuickMail on the desk of every student and teacher in North America.

CE's "Educate America" program begins this August (when CE has scheduled QuickMail 3.5 to ship) by offering the company's LAN-based email software to schools for $10 per faculty user and $3 per student user (with several license sizes starting at ten-user packs). These prices contrast with current educational packages at around $35 per user, or the standard packages that sell for almost twice that.

The company says faculty license packages will include the server and administration software, network client software for Macintosh and DOS, "file based" client software for Windows (which requires an intermediary file server), the company's QM Forms custom form editor, and QM Remote software for checking mail by modem. Student packages include the client software but none of the server or maintenance software. (Purchasers will need at least one faculty package or an existing QuickMail system.)

QuickMail 3.5 is expected to offer Macintosh "drag and drop" functionality, styled text within messages, and a new gateway to America Online.

Educate America goes on to offer Internet email service, World Wide Web browsing, and other Internet capabilities through Global Village Communication's GlobalCenter service. For a one-time setup fee of $300 and a monthly flat rate of $325, all users on the network will have unlimited Web browsing and email access. Global Village's Internet service (now through a recently announced partnership with UUNET) offers automatic connection via 28.8 Kbps modems or ISDN using the company's OneWorld Internet hardware.

QuickMail isn't the necessarily the best solution for Internet email access, but it's well-suited to local networks of a few dozen or a few hundred users (especially if the majority are Mac users). The GlobalCenter Internet service provides a simple way to connect an entire network, and may prove to be a good starting point for schools considering more expensive connections down the road.

CE Software -- 800/523-7638 -- 515/221-1801 -- <sales@cesoft.com>
Global Village Communication -- 800/736-4821 -- 408/523-1000
<sales@globalvillage.com>

Information from:
CE Software propaganda