On Fri, 2004-01-30 at 10:00, jason@pfingstmann.com wrote:
> Hi,
>  
> I have been out voted into having our company switch to using Outlook
> at the desktop and a Microsoft Exchange server. (Oh the nightmares) 
> We had a conversation about this the other day after this was decided
> and the person who made the final decision thought that we NEEDED
> exchange to run Outlook.  After explaining to him that you don't need
> Exchange to run MS Office w/ Outlook, he mentioned that he wants to
> switch from the web based phpgroupware to using the shared contacts
> within outlook.  This is where my problems come in at.  I need
> something that runs on Linux that will emulate exchange.  I have come
> across exchange4linux along with some pure client side contact sharing
> solutions.  After going through the installation proceedure for
> exchange4linux, I found out that after I loaded the client MAPI plugin
> for Outlook, that it required a key on the server to allow clients to
> connect (thus costing money per seat).  I then looked into using
> public and shared folders in IMAP - we run UW-IMAP.  I created the
> necessary environment for a public folder and got it to work nicely
> with #public showing in the namespace list.  I can't get Outlook or
> Squirrelmail to subscribe to it, and outlook probably wouldn't allow
> the creation of contacts in this folder.  So that solution isn't going
> to work either.  Any other ideas?
----
I think that you've got a tail wagging the dog issue going on here that
if you don't chop off it's tail, you are gonna have to deal with the
teeth.

Outlook is a perverse client. It is a sinkhole for all things Microsoft
and the issue is Outlook itself.

Specifically:
- Outlook is a terribly unfriendly program to IMAP servers. It stores
sent mail in personal folders only, same goes for drafts.
- Outlook gags on deleting messages on IMAP servers - you must manually
'Purge Deleted Messages' as they will not be removed from IMAP server in
any other fashion.
- Everything goes into this PST black hole which works fine for some
period of time and then explodes like a frog in a microwave. Repair a
dead PST file? fahgettaboudit. This is progress? You want to lose your
contacts, email, task list, etc. all in one shot? Use Outlook.
- Outlook doesn't lend itself well to roaming profiles UNLESS you use
the ORK and set up transforms. You pretty much have to remove copies of
Office already installed on computers and install them all over again
but using the MSI/MST transforms.
- Contacts added to the Outlook Address Book are not available with any
other program on Windows and clumsily exported (even to the point of
requiring insertion of the CD just to get the code to export).
- Outlook is specifically designed for use with Exchange Server and
though it does have support for pop3/imap connections, much of the
feature set is specifically omitted - whereas those things are
implemented in their 'free' Outlook Express.

If I had a mandate that we were going to use Outlook as mail client -
nothing else, your choices are pretty much going to be things like
Bynari/Samsung/Kolab as George outlined but I think that these might be
tough choices compared to Exchange Server. Of course the management
panel (the last time I saw Exchange it was 5.5), was a confused mess and
entirely ridiculous to control relaying, aliases, configuration. Now
considering Exchange Server means that you can't adequately use Samba as
a domain controller, thus your obligations are likely to have 2 Windows
servers just because someone likes the Outlook mail client. Jane, help
me get off this crazy thing.

I used to think that the Outlook mail client was the best all around
client - but then I started using Evolution and I can tell you that
hands down, Evolution 1.4.5 on Fedora kicks it's everliving butt.
- I didn't have to create a custom map for LDAP fields.
- It's entirely flexible about where I locate my data files - this not
only includes sent mail and drafts, but also the contacts, tasks etc.
- Sync's with my Palm - easy
- Data stored as xml - can be ripped, scoured, massaged, manipulated,
bent, folded, stapled.
- cough/gag, marvelous implementation of html mail

Of course Evolution isn't available for windows (I don't think anyway),
but the point is, that I sold myself too short on MUA's before. Yes, I
like the 'multi-frame' type of presentation. But of course,
Netscape/Mozilla/Outlook Express/Eudora already have that too and I
would suspect that Pegasus and Sylpheed also have that.

Anyway, with my last big project, I set up Outlook, Outlook Express and
Netscape on their windows boxes and told them that they could use
whichever that they wanted since they were all set up. They could use
Outlook out of habit and the fact that their addresses were already
locked in and would require finagling just get them into another program
and Windows Address Book was a much better host for that purpose - other
programs - not just Outlook can use them. Outlooks interface into LDAP
Address Books is downright clumsy compared to Netscape or Mozilla. 

So in the end, the Outlook MUA as the thing of choice represents a
number of mediocre client apps, there are better contact, calendar and
mail managers including those given away free by Microsoft and you don't
need to worry about exploding PST files. Pile on top of that, the one
big lump of a data store that Exchange Server creates and...well, let's
just say don't go there UNLESS, you are absolutely committed to large
storage needs and large backup handling because people will not remove
their email unless they are forced to. Then there's the special versions
of Anti-Virus for Exchange Server and special implementations of backup
details for backing it up. If I were a user, I would love Exchange
Server because there are a lot of groupware features. My experience is
that few users are sophisticated enough to make use of them. Caveat
emptor.

Craig