Fwd: RE: [Evolution] Redhat 7.1 Ximian Gnome 1.4 and Evolution with MS Exchange



Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 20:51:07 -0400
To: clahey ximian com
From: Tom Cooper <tom_cooper bigfoot com>
Subject: RE: [Evolution] Redhat 7.1 Ximian Gnome 1.4 and Evolution with MS Exchange
Cc: forrestx taylor intel com;evolution ximian com;bapper piratehaven org

On 02 May 2001 16:09:58 -0700, Brian Pomerantz wrote:
> IMAP will work as well.  Though, it would be really swell if I could
> assign my sent and trash folders to an IMAP folder instead of a local
> folder.  If I could do this and have real LDAP support, I would ditch
> Netscape Mail in a real hurry in favor of Evolution.

What's not real about the LDAP support?
With all due respect, from my perspective it's not real until I don't have to download sources and compile evo from scratch with LDAP support. I have read and in fact, participated in the philosophical discussions about LDAP support and licensing. I simply don't consider LDAP support to be a part of this product until it's a part of the binaries.
I am not asking that OpenLDAP be distributed with your code.  It's fine 
with me if your build simply considers it a dependency for LDAP to 
work.  I love Linux, and evo shows great promise.  I have simply come to 
the place in my life where I won't compile software from source.  It's too 
complicated, takes too much time, and I can't tell you how many hours I've 
spent chasing dependencies and libraries.
In my peer group, I'm considered a Linux zealot.  I run Linux at home.  My 
wife uses it exclusively.  Were it not for MS Money's electronic 
transactions and a best friend who works for a game company, I probably 
would not run Windows at all at home.
I have been using Linux since 1994.  I have a degree in CS and am quite 
competent to compile software from source.  I even used to write software, 
back in the day.  I'm a rebel in my Fortune 100 company because I run 
Linux on my desktop.  At this stage of my life, I just don't want to spend 
hours dinking around with editing makefiles and hoping for the best.
I'm telling you this because I think that my perspective has validity in 
terms of target customers.  If I, as an enterprise customer, want to 
consider the feasibility of replacing Outlook with evo, I need global 
address book access.  This is available through LDAP.  I need it available 
in the binaries.  The number of potential customers who might download and 
futz around with evo's LDAP support is FAR greater if the LDAP support is 
built in.
Your competition is MS.  They make life EASY.  Getting my wife to convert 
from Word to SOffice a few years ago was difficult because of typeface and 
clipart selection.  It was VERY easy  for my wife to connect to MS' 
website and find indexed downloadable clipart.  Finding similar tools for 
Linux is challenging.  You're going to have to make it easy to try your 
product if you're interested in product adoption.  RC and XimianGnome are 
HUGE strides in making Linux for the masses, and I'm glad to see that.
The next step is to make evo as simple as possible to snap in as a 
replacement for Outlook.  This is complicated by the lack of group 
calendaring support.  I'm looking forward to the day when that is possible 
from my Linux box.  Barring the calendaring support, giving access to LDAP 
so that I can use the Exchange GAL would greatly assist in snapping evo in.
Hope this helps.  Thanks for reading my posting.

Regards,
Tom Cooper




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