Why not simply a "Mac Exchange client"???

[EJR]

A simple question, probably without a simple answer, but I need to vent
a bit.

In the OS 9 days, Outlook 2001 for the Mac was a full-featured client
for Exchange servers. It was essentially a clone of Outlook 2000 on
Windows. From what I recall, the functionality was nearly identical.
A Mac user on Exchange with Outlook 2001 could do everything a PC
Exchange user could do with Outlook 2000/XP. Calendaring, public
folders, allowing other users' access to the mailbox or specific
folders, the replied/forward status of the messages were preserved,
etc., etc.

Then came OS X, and for some reason M$ scrapped both Outlook and
Outlook Express for the Mac and started over with Entourage, primarily
intended to be a POP/IMAP client. As we all know, Entourage X had
issues working with Exchange; Entourage 2004 is decidedly better and
I'm thankful for that.

Still, for those of us who must use an Exchange server, Entourage does
not provide the same experience for Mac users that Outlook provides for
PC users.

Why?

Why doesn't Microsoft make an Exchange client -- an Outlook clone --
for OS X that simply works? Why don't they make Outlook for the Mac?
They were able to port Outlook to OS 9 -- is it impossible to do so
under OS X?

Why are those of us who exist in an Exchange environment forced to use
Entourage? Why do we have to use this clunky, IMAP/WebDAV hybrid
interface, held together with duct tape, to access an Exchange server?
Why do we have to use Entourage, and have no support for Notes and
Tasks on the Exchange server? Why can't we have data like the
replied/forwarded status of a message synced to the server, instead of
being local to each copy of Entourage???

And if Microsoft can't or won't do it, why doesn't someone else make a
truly native Exchange client for OS X? Mail.app tries, but in my
experience it's just too slow to sync with the Exchange server,
particularly for large mailboxes. And of course, Mail provides no
support for Calendar, Contacts, Public Folders, Notes, Tasks, etc.
It's not a PIM the way Outlook is, the way Entourage tries to be.

There's a cliche that it takes Microsoft three tries to get anything
right. Windows didn't really hit the masses until version 3.0; and
when the 9x line came along, Win95 and the first edition of Win98 were
pretty lousy. Win98 Second Edition was the first one that could truly
be called "stable."

Maybe this will hold true for Entourage as well, and the next version
of Entourage (2007? 2008?) will have real Exchange functionality.

Any insights or comments, please share.

Eric

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

In the OS 9 days, Outlook 2001 for the Mac was a full-featured client
for Exchange servers. It was essentially a clone of Outlook 2000 on
Windows.

The core of the problem as far as I can guess is that Outlook 2001 was a
full featured MAPI client (as is Win:Outlook). WHen MacOS X came out, it
brought massive architecture changes and porting all the MAPI networking
accessibility was a collosal task.

MS made the choice to follow another path and use everything they had
available to still provide Exchange support without having to re-write
everything from scratch to be compatible with the new MacOS X
architecture. Office X used IMAP for e-mails, WebDAV for calendars and
address book and LDAP for the GAL. Office 2004 uses WebDAV instead of
MAPI for e-mails and improved LDAP GAL-access.
The result is that some of the features are not yet accessible....

And if Microsoft can't or won't do it, why doesn't someone else make a
truly native Exchange client for OS X?

It looks like no one wants to re-write MAPI support for MacOS X :->

Maybe this will hold true for Entourage as well, and the next version
of Entourage (2007? 2008?) will have real Exchange functionality.

I have no idea what they have in mind for the next version of Entourage,
but I doubt they'd suddently re-implement MAPI in it. If anything, I
would suspect that Exchange could abandon MAPI for WebDAV. I've heard
that MAPI had some serious limitations and that some people would love
to see it evolve to something more expandable (*I* clearly know nothing
about these technicalities - I have no idea how MAPI works).

Corentin

 

[coffeegreek]

A simple question, probably without a simple answer, but I need to vent
a bit.

Look at the bright side: With WebDav, you can use Entourage to access
your exchange mail, calendar and address book from home or anywhere in
the world, away from your server. No need to move to another interface,
such as Outlook Web Access in a browser, which is horrible in Safari or
any other browser except IE for PC. And no need to turn POP on for
mail, which most exchange server administrators will no do for you
anyway. Outlook, Mail.app, iCal, etc. do not have this ability. I
agree with you about the limited functionality on other aspects -
especially losing the replied/forwarded status, but for me at least,
the above more than makes up for it.
George