Why not just run Outlook via Virtual PC ?

[David Wilkie]

Seems that most of the issues in this forum would be eliminated if there was
an Outlook 2003 for Mac (Entourage just is not up to par with latest
Outlook). So, why not run Outlook 2003 within Virtual PC? Would it be
possible to have the same experience as if on a PC?

 

[Ningauble]

Seems that most of the issues in this forum would be eliminated if there was
an Outlook 2003 for Mac (Entourage just is not up to par with latest
Outlook). So, why not run Outlook 2003 within Virtual PC? Would it be
possible to have the same experience as if on a PC?

Bad idea.
1. It would be slow as shit.
2. You would be vulnerable to all those Windoze viruses & worms.

 

[Guest]

Bad idea.
1. It would be slow as shit.

On what kind of system? Sure, maybe on a G3 or lesser. Then again, it's
only Outlook your talking about, which is hardly resource intensive.

2. You would be vulnerable to all those Windoze viruses & worms.

No worms because you will have a working firewall.

Moreover, use an ISP that provides AV and SPAM control on their POP
services etc, OR do it yourself with a simple Gatweway/Firewall on an old
166Mhz Pentium or something similar.

Even Outlook is notoriously insecure, and like most products of the same
ilk, requires some extra layer of protection.

Just don't expect these such email programs to be a simple panacea alone
for all the weaknesses that exist in the appliation level.

 

[JasonMeyer]

More money to buy VirtualPC. Why buy two pieces of software to get on to
work?

 

[Sean]

I have an IMAC G5 with a gig of ram. While I believe I have it
configured correctly, running any program in Virtual PC is SLOOWWWW.
On the virtual machine, the windows task manager lists the CPU at 100%
I only run Quicken for Windows through VPC which is fine because I
only use Quicken once a day at the most. Running something like
Outlook which I use mutliple times a day would definitely be
prohibitive.

Whoever said Outlook for Windows is "hardly resource intensive" is
incorrect. On my physical intel machine, I am connecting up to
exchange server with Outlook 2003 and my task manager is saying Outlook
is using 83 megs and MS Word another 30. That is nearly 1/5 of my
physical memory (512 MBs).

Once you get Entourage configured correctly, there are very few ongoing
issues. The interface is more "fun" than Outlook's. I wouldn't use
Entourage or Outlook for Windows without Exchange. I would be all over
Mail.app, but I just like Exchange too much

 

[Guest]

I have an IMAC G5 with a gig of ram. While I believe I have it
configured correctly, running any program in Virtual PC is SLOOWWWW.
On the virtual machine, the windows task manager lists the CPU at 100%

On my machine:
800 Mhz G4 Processor
256K level 2 Cache
133Mhz system bus
1GB PC 133 SDRAM

It's slow, but only just, compared to native apps. (I'm not surprised that
there's a noticeable performance hit though, given that it comes out of
Redmond). <

In actual fact we're using two layers of bloated software, so it makes
perfect sense. It's really a no-win situation because Entourage is totally
bloated as well.

To surmise, it's a bit slow as stated, but not THAT slow, to make it
painful. I would estimate it's about 50% slower, I can handle that, and I'm
pretty damn impatient when it comes to software.

I only run Quicken for Windows through VPC which is fine because I
only use Quicken once a day at the most. Running something like
Outlook which I use mutliple times a day would definitely be
prohibitive.

Whoever said Outlook for Windows is "hardly resource intensive" is
incorrect. On my physical intel machine, I am connecting up to
exchange server with Outlook 2003 and my task manager is saying Outlook
is using 83 megs

Outlook -> 83 Megs???

....Something is up with your installation, or (less likely)
your OS install. On my G4 it's like only at 22 Meg..

....Moreover, I only use this setup to download a whole lot of emails from
my servers that I was testing at one stage.

Just use Mail.app and set up Calendar properly + download patches for any
active sync etc.

and MS Word another 30. That is nearly 1/5 of my
physical memory (512 MBs).

Once you get Entourage configured correctly, there are very few ongoing
issues. The interface is more "fun" than Outlook's. I wouldn't use
Entourage or Outlook for Windows without Exchange. I would be all over
Mail.app, but I just like Exchange too much

I hate exchange, it's really slow and bloated, insecure and having to patch
that piece of sh*t is a total nightmare and pain-in-the-ass. Try qmail.

 

[Geoffrey Anderson]

On what kind of system? Sure, maybe on a G3 or lesser. Then again, it's
only Outlook your talking about, which is hardly resource intensive.

Um, Have you ever tried running outlook under VPC? I can positively
verify that it is pathetically slow.

The amount of network traffic it generates, the interaction with
exchange etc, are a significant overhead. And the interface is quite
bloated.

This is on a PB G4 1.5GHz, with 1.5 gig ram, not a low end system,
running Win2K in VPC, a fairly snappy OS.

I use it because it seems the only way to schedule "resources" properly
in an exchange environment.
[snip all the firewall, and AV/Spam filtering at the ISP comments]

Geoff

 

[Geoffrey Anderson]

On my machine:
800 Mhz G4 Processor
256K level 2 Cache
133Mhz system bus
1GB PC 133 SDRAM

It's slow, but only just, compared to native apps. (I'm not surprised that
there's a noticeable performance hit though, given that it comes out of
Redmond). <

In actual fact we're using two layers of bloated software, so it makes
perfect sense. It's really a no-win situation because Entourage is totally
bloated as well.

To surmise, it's a bit slow as stated, but not THAT slow, to make it
painful. I would estimate it's about 50% slower, I can handle that, and I'm
pretty damn impatient when it comes to software.




Outlook -> 83 Megs???

Outlook XP, as reported in my task manager is consuming 78M of physical
memory (I max out the VM at 512M sice I have 1.5 G in my mac. Yep, it
is a huge resourse hog.

...Something is up with your installation, or (less likely)
your OS install. On my G4 it's like only at 22 Meg..

...Moreover, I only use this setup to download a whole lot of emails from
my servers that I was testing at one stage.

Just use Mail.app and set up Calendar properly + download patches for any
active sync etc.





I hate exchange, it's really slow and bloated, insecure and having to patch
that piece of sh*t is a total nightmare and pain-in-the-ass. Try qmail.

If you are not using Exchange, then you really should be using an
alternative mail client. I only use Entourage because it really works
with exchange. I actually am fond of the WebDAV access, and the
factthat I can get/send/receive email from any internet connection just
like I was in the office.

If I could convince my IT team to go with a nice POP3 server then I
would be happy as a clam. Yes, I can pop into the exchange server, but
that has limitations as well.

qmail would be a blessing.

Geoff