On Jan 17, 2008 1:07 PM, Rob Cambra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > I want Linux and Evolution to succeed but in order to do that it > MUST directly compete with Outlook in an Exchange environment > and in my view it isn't there yet. We're really talking about > competition here. In a corporate environment, working fairly well > is not good enough. The expectation of end users (customers) > is that it work as well or better. We rolled out a 25 user pilot with > Ubuntu 7.10 and Evo and so far the feedback is that Evo hangs > and crashes a lot more than OLK. <snip> > ... As a former code jockey, ...
...you should easily realize that any significant piece of code is nearly impossible to exactly emulate from scratch. The IBM BIOS took about 5 years (mostly because it was incredibly simple and it couldn't evolve), throwing IBM out of the PC equation and handing MS the golden ring. DOS took about 15 years to emulate, but, MS quickly replied by removing DOS from the equation and making WinDoh's stand-alone. You not only have to emulate what the target application does, you have to exactly emulate it's chaotic and undocumented behaviors... this isn't going to happen in any sort of realistic timeframe, and even if it could, MS just needs to change the behavior (The infamous MS mantra of: "It doesn't ship until <whichever app is trying to compete> is broken")... so you're left to forever chase the tail of an application you have little chance of exactly emulating anyway. That is the curse of software. Rather than emulate, take advantage of Evolution's features that Outlook can't compete with. For example, I POP (fetchmail) my email from the Exchange server to a local mailbox, and have multiple GB's of inbox and sent email... which Evolution, with more powerful queries, can search through incredibly faster and more exactingly[sp?] than Outlook. My email is a branch of my memory, and being able to search through it efficiently is incredibly important to me and my job. I used Outlook for two years, and it can't compete. Furthermore, Outlook really screws-up text-based email. It line-wraps where you need it not to (even if the incoming email doesn't line wrap, Outlook line-wraps for the reader, making a lot of what I need to do unintelligible to Outlook users). Add to that Outlook's enforced "Top Post" (read backwards) style (where it's very hard to interlace questions in emails w/ responses, or even bottom post), Outlook becomes useless for meaningful email conversations (that you don't have to read backwards). So, don't look on Evolutions inability to exactly emulate Outlook, because it's never going to happen: look at how Evolution excels beyond Outlooks capabilities as a justification for switching. Chris _______________________________________________ Evolution-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/evolution-list
