After reading comments like the following I have been dragging my feet
on upgrading from ENT-X to ENT-2004 on a G4-450 (AGP) machine. It is
running 10.3.5 but something tells me it may lack the hp to handle the
new Entourage 2004.
How about some success stories with ENT-2004 on older machines. From
what I have read it looks like a big mistake and a time/money waster.
Seeing as I wrote what you quoted, perhaps its appropriate that I provide
you with a success story. We have been running Entourage 2004 on a G3
PowerBook with only 320MB RAM. In addition we have also been running
Classic. Entourage 2004 has been working well, in a cramped environment.
Note: I would not recommend doing this though, as you need at least 500MB
RAM for OS X and the more memory the better. Its been great on a PB 1GHz
500MB RAM.
Things I really like:
€ It upgraded quickly, easily and it didn't require me to do anything more
than install 2004 and uninstall X.
€ I haven't had one instance of the dreaded beachball! Previously we would
get that very frequently and have hundreds if not thousands of duplicated
events, contacts etc.
€ I like projects - very useful.
€ I think it is a much nicer, though not too different interface.
€ I LOVE the fact that when the Exchange Server is not available,
Send/Receive does not try to talk to the bl**dy server all the time!!!
€ I like the new non-html standard font.
€ I think this version of the Junk Mail filter is great! Almost all the
junk is handled, and all the rubbish can be deleted easily.
€ The views in the mail window are AWESOME. SO many ways to find, group and
view things!
€ The scrapbook is an intriguing aspect that I have only just discovered.
€ Neat keyboard shortcuts!!!
Things I'm not so impressed with:
€ Emails with punctuation type characters !#$%^&* not being delivered when
sent from within the Exchange environment.
€ Speed of receiving emails from the Exchange Server - note: speed of
receiving emails from outside exchange (.Mac for example) is great. Its
just the speed of synchronising...!
€ Notes & tasks don't synchronise to Exchange...
€ We can't get delegates to work, and that's a big reason why we went to
2004. Perhaps we've configured something incorrectly, but I could swear we
have done the right thing...
€ Not full support for Exchange public folders...
€ No delegation of tasks (only through sharing projects, and it doesn't
appear that sharing applies to Windows users... I'm happy to be proved
wrong.)
In summary, I much prefer Entourage 2004 to Entourage X - heaps more stable,
it works really well. I guess that you must decide based on your own
situation, but for me its been worth it.
