Entourage and the road ahead

D

Dude

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: Exchange

This isn't a question, but more of a general philosophical wondering as when MS is going to allow true feature parity for Entourage in regards to Exchange.

I've read this blog/site for years and the same basic issues are still missing, in fact I'd say other then adding OoMO support what has been done to bring it to feature parity with Outlook? My answer is not much. I've had a running list for years and it hasn't budged much, I'm sure others know the list quite well, its not a secret.

Add to this that Apple is releasing Snow Leopard in September... I can't wait to see how Apple is supporting it in terms of connectivity.

I like the MBU, I think they do a great job. Unfortunately I think many of the reasons why Entourage is the way it is... its out of their hands. I'm not one for conspiracy theories but to be blunt, I'm having a hard time of even getting my arms around the reasons why I would want to upgrade to the next version when and if it comes out. 2008 was what 4 1/2 years to develop??? And what was added...

In short the next rev will have to floor me before we even consider budging.
 
M

Michel Bintener

2008 was what 4 1/2 years to develop??? And what was added...

Keep in mind that the transition from PowerPC to Intel was no small feat,
and neither was the implementation of the new Office Open XML file format.
If we also consider the implementation of an entirely new graphical engine,
then it is clear that MacBU was extremely busy during these four years.
Entourage certainly has not changed much in some areas (e-mail composition,
Sync Services, etc.), but it has also seen some great improvements in
others, such as the implementation of Spotlight. I can't comment on its
feature range as far as Exchange is concerned, as I don't use this type of
account.
 
D

Dude

Well aware (and that if Apple hadn't dropped Carbon, MS and Adobe) would still be dragging their feet, separate discussion there.

Not saying that the transition wasn't a difficult task, rather features that people are really asking for are still not there 6-7 years later after asking for them.
 
A

Adam Bailey

This isn't a question, but more of a general philosophical wondering as when
MS is going to allow true feature parity for Entourage in regards to Exchange.
Click to expand...

Possibly never. As is stated on a regular basis here, Entourage is
developed by a different team with different goals and a very different
audience. Mac users don't want Outlook. There's a lot to like about
Outlook but there's also a tremendous amount of bloat and nonsense that
would never be tolerated on the Mac.

Also keep in mind that, to a certain extent, the Mac team is limited by
featured available in WebDAV. It also seems that with EWS, they've
given up on WebDAV and are moving to a new protocol. Presumably this
new protocol will give them access to services that WebDAV doesn't
support.

All you can do at this point is keep requesting the features you
actually *want*, rather than asking for 100% parity. Because parity
isn't going to happen, but oft-requested features (such as OOF)
probably will.
 
D

Diane Ross

This isn't a question, but more of a general philosophical wondering as when
MS is going to allow true feature parity for Entourage in regards to Exchange.
Click to expand...
The rumor mills are filled with new changes that are coming. However, until
Microsoft officially releases the info about the next version of Entourage
we can only speculate.

We continue to urge users to keep sending in feedback. Microsoft does use
feedback reports to determine what gets added.
 
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