Outlook and Linux

[Chris Peterman]

I believe the replacement to Outlook is Evolution. Just mention that it
is produced by Novell and it should sway them ;P

~ Chris


On Mon, 2005-10-31 at 22:07 -0500, Eric S. Johansson wrote:
> this may be another one of those for want of a ... a Linux sale was lost 
> cases.  The only reason I bring them here is to try and make the 
> fundamental problems in the real world visible and work out what are 
> reasonable solutions.
> 
> I was asked in this by a client today.  How do you share Outlook 
> calendar and contacts using a Linux system as the core?  Simple 
> filesharing doesn't work because Microsoft screwed the pooch with the 
> resource locking.
> 
> I know about bynari and a couple of other players but they are all 
> rather expensive (quantity 100: $90-$150 which is a significant chunk of 
> change) and want to own the customer from client all the way through to 
> mail server with all of the solutions for antispam, virus etc. coming 
> from them.
> 
> Answers like "don't use Outlook" are not really helpful.  They are 
> married to it and they are on Windows desktop for the foreseeable 
> future[1].  On the other hand, if there was an equivalent client with 
> exactly the same functionality in terms of e-mail, calendars, and 
> contact sharing, they may be open to that kind of change.
> 
> So, how does one solve this problem.  (Telling me to go to a different 
> form is perfectly acceptable)
> 
> ---eric
> 
> [1] about three or four months ago they tried converting a few people to 
> open office so they could cut down the number of Microsoft office 
> purchases they were making.  The conversion failed miserably.  This 
> organization lives and dies by spreadsheets that are shipped around.  If 
> it is going to be a replacement for Excel, the conversion must be 
> perfect.  Everything must behave identically.  Close enough and fudge 
> it, doesn't cut it because these are salespeople dealing with product 
> and customers with a very short turnaround cycle.  stuff that isn't 
> exactly as it was, makes their hearts beat faster and not in a good way.
> 
> try open office 2.0?  not likely.  The experience was so bad it's going 
> to take a while for people to forget.
> 
> 
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