Vista On A MacBook - Outlook Vs Something Else?

Ponzi nailed it - everyone has a different idea of productive computing. What works for you, likely is not going to work for me. Taking it a notch further, Ponzi also points out the lack of Outlook on OS X, is possibly a deal buster. And leave it to Chris to point out the HUGE flaw of trusting that mess of software called Microsoft Entourage. While I have good friends who are perfectly fine with this application, I cannot help but thing it is time to rename it to Microsoft Excruciate. This is one of those rare moments when he and I happen to agree on something relating to software. Usually we see thing quite differently, which keeps things lively.

The dynamic duo above also pointed out that they are Exchange server users. I can relate to this, I happen to be well.

Folks, so many of us live in a Microsoft world that is not even funny. And despite me rather using Zimbra as it blows the doors off of MS Exchange, at the end of the day, I have yet to find the server vendor that is going to provide me with competitive rates to DLSExtreme’s offerings.

Now understand that the Zimbra demo clearly shows why Yahoo! was so interested in buying it up, which ironically is now a company sought after by Microsoft - proprietors of MS Exchange. Should Microsoft buy up Yahoo, anyone care to wonder what will become of Zimbra? My guess, it will get all of the tender loving care that WebTV received after that purchase happened. It’ll be there, but will anyone care? I digress.

For myself, buying into Zimbra is an expensive proposition. Expensive in self-support or just expensive in a hosted option. Either way, MS Exchange and for some people, Outlook, is the only viable option without derailing EVERYTHING in their day.

As for myself personally, I am a full time Ubuntu user. This means I end up with Evolution with its MS Exchange supporting plugin by default. It costs me a big zero do use my MS Exchange account with my Blackberry, excluding those server fees. While Evolution on Ubuntu may not be ‘pretty’, it’s stable to use and with recent additions of a better back-up system for localized mail/calender/etc, I could not possibly live without it. But understand that I use Feisty on my desktop machine as I am waiting for some issues with Gutsy to be ironed out in the next Long Term Release of Ubuntu. You can use it with Gutsy, but combined with POP3 accounts, there is a send and receive headache that can get old with the application start-up.

Then why not try this wondrous app on another OS? Simple - the horrid results with Evolution on OS X along with bug-filled Evolution port on Windows. So to move to OS X or more likely, back to Windows, Outlook would need to play a full time roll. For obvious reasons, this really sucks.

You know it is sad. Evolution on GNOME based Linux distributions works really well, while the previous two ports listed above have made some real effort, yet are simply unstable to use or simply lack the needed MS Exchange connector, which completely defeats the entire point for most people.