Still the Corporate Bastard Child

I arrived at work this morning with a great email waiting for me. An email that I had waited for since last February. Finally, Microsoft was announcing Exchange support in their Entourage product. A product I had used back in the day, but decided that it’s HTML rendering was too slow, so I cobbled together other programs to serve my productivity needs. I actually _like_ the free Mail app that Apple provides.

Imagine then my joy that I could download the update and finally be on par with my Windows coworkers. No more need to fire up the Pentium II laptop and wait 10 minutes while it attempts to open Outlook. No more needing to use Microsoft’s Remote Desktop to look at the laptop and wait 3 minutes for it to respond to a mouse-click. Nevermind that the Mac I’m on and the laptop are on the _same hub_ and have a 100 Base T speed between them. And nevermind, really, that the laptop is running Windows XP Pro. On a Pentium II.

So imagine my thrill, my utter joy that I would be able to finally use a decent method of collaborating with my coworkers. Imagine.

Except that I can’t. My company doesn’t like IMAP. And guess what? In order to use an Exchange server, IMAP4 must be enabled on the server. So. I’m back where I started.

It’s like OS X never even happened to Microsoft. Apple better provide Exchange hooks that are rumored in Panther.

I’m so shattered. Even worse is reading all the hopeful comments on all the Mac news sites from people like me actually thanking the Microsoft Mac Business Unit.

Someone throw me a freaking bone here. It’s definitely feeling very 1995 and very painful. New millennium my ass.

  • http://www.mrjerz.com/ mrjerz

    I feel that pain. I too thought that this would solve a problem for a bunch of people. But I guess that by actually solving the problem Microsoft would have had to assist Apple users in some way, which seems like a pretty far-reaching thing for them to do right now.

  • http://www.cyberdorks.com/drew/ drew

    apperently entourage needs a specific version of exchange to work on top of it. the corp. i work for still uses an older version which means i’ll still need classic outlook til at least the end of the year :(

  • http://www.amishrobot.com Josh

    I haven’t had a chance to test this out yet, but it better work. I have been using the web-based echange client, which is actually less painful than having classic open.

  • http://www.boobies.com krotchbat

    i dunno about that stuff, but i like dooce’s new masthead.

  • http://mihow.com mihow

    I work at an organization of about 210 people. I am the only Mac user in the entire company, I am the creative department. They use something called Groupwise to schedule meetings, send email, etc. I use the Free Mac Email client which came with OS X. Though, I have my work email coming through Mac’s email client, when someone sends a message saying they’ll be out of the office or they’d lke to schedule a meeting, once it’s loaded, your supposed to click “accept” or “decline” which given my client, this is not an option. Unless I fire up the PC, the email just floats there as if it’s never been seen. So irksome.

    This causes me so many problems I have lost count. The web-based email we have for Groupwise is a joke, especially when dealing with attachments which is a large part of my job. I wonder if I switch from Mac’s Free Mail client to Entourage, I’ll be able to solve these problems and work with them? hmmmmmm… Your post has me wanting to try.

  • http://www.mrjerz.com/ mrjerz

    mihow,

    I don’t think Entourage will help you. But Groupwise is available for the Mac. I used it at a school where I worked for a while, and the entire district was on Groupwise, Mac and PC. Maybe look into that, but I will agree, Groupwise was bad. It seemed attachments were very troublesome anyway.

  • http://homepage.mac.com/imjeffp imjeffp

    And then there is the joy that is Lotus Notes. It’s a floor wax! It’s a dessert topping!

  • http://members.aol.com/jkarr sfaustin3

    I’m very disappointed in this overhyped non-update. I had made Entourage into an IMAP client for Exchange last year, and hated it. Well now we get the hyped “One True Exchange Client For Mac” and it’s still the same deadfish IMAP client.

    I’m the IT department for about 100 users and the parent company insists we use MS Exchange. My users have used Outlook/Mac and know all its features. There’s no way I can roll out this version of Entourage and claim that it’s an improvement over what they’re using.

    Somewhere in the MacBU there exists code to be a MAPI client from a Mac, because they used it in Outlook 2001. Just Carbonize it and away you go. Entourage has always been nothing more than a glorified version of Outlook Express with a calendar, designed for home and personal use. To add some alleged contact syncing and then claim it’s now a business enterprise email app is ridiculous.

    If it’s the purpose of the MacBU to drive people over to Windows, then CONGRATULATIONS, this steaming turd called Entourage for Exchange should be immensely successful. Lots of bonus checks from Uncle Bill for you guys this year. Oh yeah, one more thing, stop with the “We’re committed to the Mac platform” crap. Until now I only suspected that it was b.s.; now I know it’s b.s.

  • http://blab-o-rama.com Beerzie Boy

    Well, at least you folks are lucky enough to be able to work on a Mac. Most of us sorry fucks are stuck, by virtue of our careers and finances, in Windows Hell.

    And, jeffp, you are right about Notes. I have had the misfortune to use this suck-ass product in my last two jobs. Standard interface conventions? Nah. Big, resource-hogging applicatrion? Yeah, sure youbetcha. Only a company as arrogant and clueless as Big Blue could continue to foist this big piece of shit on the public.

  • http://www.northlandcc.net Davef

    FYI 90% of comments on message board state the free/busy protion will not work. Cannot get calendar to really work and appoointments made in Entourage do not update exchange server. You are not missing anything. POP work the same

  • http://TERRELL Terrell Louisiana

    you people know nothing about paris. I saw her in a diffirent light than any of you jealous hateful “people” ever will. She is very real, and has a good heart. Not to mention a bad ass fation sense. Quit hating!