Rant! was ACM Technews Snippet

[Peter Lavender]

* Matthew Hawkins (matt at mh.dropbear.id.au) wrote:


> Daniel Smith (drs at outpost.dreamcraft.com.au) wrote:
> > > That's actually kinda disappointing.  Wow, yet another outlook clone,
> [--snip--]
> > As for Evolution, does *anybody* use it as a full time MUA?
> 
> I would imagine that Evolution is aimed directly at existing LookOut! users,
> and its usefulness to other people is a matter of personal preference, and
> of secondary concern to Ximian.
 
When ever I'm booted into linux on my home computer, I use Evo.

I don't have a choice, I have to use Windows, and outlook is by far
the best email client/PIM I have used.. Notes sucks, and I have just
been testing things iwth groupwise and I'm not all that impressed with
the GW client.

Apart from that though, I do like every aspect about Evo, over
applications like kmail.  Mind oyu I haven't used balsa or other GUI
based MUA.

Typically though, I find I use mutt for 95% of my personal email...
simply becuase I've ssh'ed back to my server, and it works well.  I
originally started using it becuase it's pgp/gpg support is rather
good.. 


> I must agree though, it is disappointing that so many Open Source developers
> choose to clone products from that criminal organisation.  The real danger
> is that you fall into the trap of starting to play the "catch-up" game.

While I understand the sentiment, I don't agree with it the
generalisation.  I was working in a large organisation, it has a mixed
Notes and Exchange environment... the problem is of course, cost of
Administration of 2 separate systems... so some rationalising was
called for, however the problem is still there simply becuase Notes
users don't want to give up the client and general Notes capability,
and the Outlook users don't want to make the switch to the Notes
client (and I don't blame them!).

Ask any of these people do they know how/what/where the back end
is/works and they simply don't care... all they see is the client.. so
in essence they are wedded to their client.

Simple answer, install notes in the back end and allow the Outlook users
to continue using their preferred client with out causing grief to the
users of either platform.

I fail to see why Lotus/IBM don't make this a reality.. the truth is,
the exhange admins moan about the platform.  If IBM were to make
free/busy addressbooks etc available to outlook clients, that
organisation could solve thier costly problems with out the backlash
from the users... and remember it's the users at the end of the day
that have the final say...

<takes breath>

So, why have a clone of outlook?  Why the heck not?  I like it... it
is slow on my ath 1.4 gig which amazes me a bit.. but it's 1.0.8 the
current version is 1.2.1 which I think has a few speed improvements.

If the majority of people are using winnows and thus either the
outlook express or outlook client, surely an offering of a familiar,
however superior (I love the LDAP look up for name completion it
simply ROCKS!) application on an alternative OS is a good thing?


> While Microsoft steams ahead with its agenda, decent Open Source developers
> are put to task at replicating MS technologies of four or more years ago.

I don't see anything wrong iwth picking the best parts of a system and
working around that...

I'm not sure I understand what your point here is though.

> If that continues, the tables will turn and Microsoft will soon no longer be
> the ones who are technically inferior.  Its happening now... look how far
> they've advanced in 4 years!  We have come *nowhere close* to that curve.
 
I still don't get it.. 

MS have a different agenda, User Friendliness at the expence of
certain other important aspects of OS and applications.. security..
it's biting them pretty hard on the arse these days.

I mean seriously.. look how easy it is to use their applications,
sheesh even installing the OS is a no brainer. 

However only the foolish trust their software enough to place it in a
hostile environment such as the internet.. 

I doubt that will really change for a while to come.. yet Unix/linux/*bsd
servers will continue to be the platform of choice.

No biggies... the client side of things, like the GUI's the office
applicaitons and the email clients etc will continue to mature and
improve... one thing you take away is our need/desire to "tinker" and
from that something good generally comes along.. and with the open
source nature there is nothing stopping anyone taking up with mantle
and hacking improvements for thier applciation of choice.

I'm aware of the argument that not everyone is a programmer.. so
what.. it might acutally be the impetus that causes someone to learn
and that's a good thing isn't it?  :)


> I don't know what the answer is, but one thing I do know is that emulating
> Microsoft is not it.

Creating applications that are similar in look/feel/functionaity isn't
a bad start... making the same design mistakes is not a good thing to
do.

Creating an application and keeping the source to yourself, thus
stifling invoation and creativity is something the comunity isn'
t likely to emulate... and that's the ugliest part about MS's desire
for world domination... their applications are as good as any
(excluding their OS).


Just my thoughts anyway..

Pete
:wq
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