RE: [tlug] On Debian (Forget what I said in the previous mail)

[patrick.niessen@example.com]

> client/server system.  This has the potential to become the 
> Exchange killer we've all been waiting for.  After all, apart 
> from MS Office - most of whose functionality can be replaced 
> quite well with Star Office or OpenOffice.org these days - 
> the other big hold that MS has on the corporate desktop is 
> that so many organzations use Exchange.  The ones who are 
> only using it as a POP server and SMTP gateway aren't that 
> hard to pick off (that is, after all, something that Exchange 
> has always done relatively poorly).  The tough nuts to crack 
> are using Exchange's calendaring and scheduling features.  

The Problem with this KDE based approach is that you still companies and
organisations to make the sudden "risky" jump to a completely new platform,
ie. from Windows to Linux.  I think what we rather need is a step by step
approach, as provided by Open Office :  because its available on Windows I
can run it parallel to Office.  soon I notice that it works just as well as
MS-Office, so next time I have a chance to renew licenses (eg. support
expires, new hardware is purchased), I can say no Office any more.  If I
have success with this configuration I can then take the next step to
replace the OS/PC platform with Linux. 

Case in question is scheduling:  Why can we not yet get any decent O/S
product which can address the main enterprise needs: Meeting Scheduling,
Free/Busy information available through network, Resource Planning (Meeting
Rooms).  Exchange also provides "Public Folders" which are used to
distribute infor throughout the enterprise, as well as workflows (requests,
and approvals, automated forms).  I think a working product in this area is
the main neccesity for successful Linux Desktop Adoption / Exchange Killers.
But this is the weakness of open source - because it is on a voluntary basis
people only work on projects that they are personally interested in.
Because most Linux hackers do not need those enterprise features they do not
develop them.

In conclusion - if Kolab is to take off, then decent clients must be
available for other Platforms than Linux (ie. Windows and Mac would be nice)
as well as Web based clients.

Patrick