You are correct, they will never port half of Windows and that is why the Mac will always be a second class citizen with regard to being an Exchange client. They can bind everything to DAV and that still won't fix the problem since there is still missing client-side functionality. I doubt that MS will ever allow OWA to replace Outlook. In fact, it appears that they are attempting to do the opposite, that is, make OWA unnecessary for Windows users.
Windows clients will always have more Exchange interaction capabilities than Mac clients. This makes them either more attractive or indispensable when compared to Windows client depending on the environment. If you want to attribute this to the financial constraints placed on the Entourage/Mac Office team so be it. The mechanism used internally to control the outcome doesn't matter. The outcome is still the same. I'd be shocked if there is some PowerPoint floating around MS titled, "How to keep Macs down" (And f there is I'm sure they don't show it to the Mac SW developers) I'm taking a results or outcome based point of view. We have Exchange 2003 servers and will always upgrade to the latest version (we typically start testing for deployment as soon as beta or RC versions are made available through TechNet or MSDN) so we're at least meeting MS half way by keeping the server side up to date. I think it is crazy when people demand backwards compatibility--that's really unfair to the developer and usually creates a lot of extra work. Not to mention deprives the developer of revenue. On the other hand when I do fork over cash to stay current I feel justified in having high expectations and putting pressure on the developer to give me my money's worth. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John C. Welch Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2004 6:27 PM To: E'Rage digest Subject: Re: Entourage-Talk Digest - 10/20/04 On 10/20/04 5:40 PM, "Entourage:mac Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > My point simply is that I don't care about any of that. These three groups are > all on the same team and if we can put a man on the moon, we can have feature > parity for Macs. Move everything onto DAV, merge or partner the Entourage and > Outlook groups, give Entourage developers the same access and clout as Outlook > developers. It's not a matter of money (MS has enough). It's not a technical > challenge (all the source code belongs to one company). It is a matter of > will. > > If MS is going to claim that they want Macs to be Native Exchange clients, > they need to keep their word and not try to execute a sales strategy while > they lie to us. > > CLEARLY MAC USERS ARE SUPPOSED TO TRY AND USE ENTOURAGE WITH EXCHANGE, GET > FRUSTRATED AND SWITCH TO WINDOWS. > > I just wish MS would be honest about it. Oh nonsense. That's just frustration talking. I have no doubt that you're going to see feature parity that doesn't require porting half of windows. (this is for more of the esoteric stuff, not what you're talking about). Are you going to see it by a set date? No, you aren't. Is 2004 a noticeable improvement over v.X? Yes. Can you make things that don't work over DAV with Exchange 2000 work over DAV with Exchange 2000? No. The MacBU doesn't have a magic bucket of money. They have to justify costs over sales like anyone else. They get looked at VERY closely because they ARE so unique. They also are quite small. They will probably always BE quite small. That's the downside of writing Mac software at MS. They aren't OfficeWin. They aren't even the Xbox team. So they do what they are able to, and the result, while not perfect is damned good. As well, E'rage is not the only part of Office. There's critical issues in the rest of it, like getting object embedding to work cross platform, better RTL support in Word, etc. So improvement, like all things, happens slower than you'd like. That's all man. Relax. -- "He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened. He who conquers others has physical strength. He who conquers himself is strong." -Tao Te Ching -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/> -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
