On 4/6/07, James Knott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Nekelle Celestine wrote: > > Good Day Sir/Madam > > > > When will Open Office create a Microsoft Outlook equivalent? I'm > really excited about that. > Given that Outlook is an inferior mail client, compared to the alternatives, why would you want an equivalent? You may want to try Thunderbird, which can be obtained from www.mozilla.com .
Outlook is far more than just email. The Outlook/Exchange combination is something I haven't seen really replicated yet. The combination of Email, Calendar, Todo and Journal, even if individually lacking, combine into a very powerful tool. Especially the ability to *easily* schedule meeting and assign tasks. So, given that Thunderbird is an inferior tool for serious business why would you promote it? And, given the glaring omission of a PIM in OOo right now, why should a business choose it? Seriously, in a business setting users expect a full featured, integrated PIM like Outlook/Exchange. Yeah, Outlook sucks for email and it's not even close to the best for anything else it does, but it's a single tool and when integrated with Exchange it really does set a very high bar for overall functionality. Not everyone in an organization needs it, but guess what? The folks making the decisions do! And they aren't going to settle for a second rate solution. Chris PS: Yes, I know that not all midsize+ organizations use Outlook/Exhange and that there are alternatives if you cobble together enough different tools. The fact remains that Outlook/Exchange is currently king of the hill in that space, and calling it just an email system ignores a significant part of it's value proposition.
