Re: Exchange Benefits for Mac users
From: Steven (umm.no_at_nospam.net)
Date: 03/05/05
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Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2005 02:03:40 -0500
"Joshua Yeidel" <yeidel@wsu.edu> wrote in message
news:BE4E1B57.8FD0%yeidel@wsu.edu...
>
> This suggests that your site doesn't make extensive use of scheduling,
> shared folders, etc. That leaves only a few small benefits (e.g., global
> address list, "Block" lists) from the users' perspective.
>
> I am still hoping to hear of more "wins" for Mac users of Exchange.
Mac users (and *NIX alike) won't get to use the all features that you are
talking about (unless you use a Citrix setup combined with Outlook). While
you can certainly use Exchange's calendaring features with non-Outlook
clients, the way you go about sending, receiving, accepting, and declining
meeting invites is not intuitive nor user friendly. I have migrated some
extremely large UNIX shops to Exchange, one of which also used Meeting
Maker. You mentioned scheduling, shared folders, global address lists, and
" block lists":
-scheduling: It depends on what client. WebDAV clients will have the best
experience (after Outlook of course), but it is still limiting. POP3 and
IMAP clients can download meeting invites that have URL's appended to them
that when clicked on takes the client to Exchanges Outlook Web Access
interface to accept or decline the meeting (all mail items in Exchange are
accessible through a URL). The URL that is appended to a meeting invite
points to the \Inbox\"MeetingInvite".eml file directly, which is a problem
for POP3 clients. If your clients are using POP3 then the URL that Exchange
appends may not be valid as they just downloaded the meeting invite off the
server! So that URL that points directly to the meeting invite in the
mailbox will not work because that item is no longer in the Inbox on the
server. The best way to address this is to have your POP3 clients keep the
mail on the server for a few days before purging. While IMAP does not have
this same problem, it is still problematic (but functional if your customers
are trained properly).
-Shared folders: If you are referring to public folders then you do get
limited access to them through WebDAV and IMAP (but not POP3). You may be
able to post and read from public folders through IMAP and WebDAV, but you
cannot manage the permissions through IMAP and through most WebDAV clients
(I am not sure if you can create folders via IMAP as I don't have an
Exchange server handy at the moment). So for shared folders, you do get
some features, but they are quite limited when compared to a MAPI client.
If you don't mind customers calling you to create folders and setting up the
permissions for them then this won't be a problem.
-Global Address Lists: You do not get a global address book\list for
non-MAPI clients. You get a searchable directory (not browsable...there is
a significant difference) using LDAP. This is no different then building
your own LDAP directory honestly as there is no real difference from the
client side (outside of WebDAV clients and OWA clients, which are going to
be hard coded to talk to AD to resolve addresses to objects).
-Block lists: I am not sure what you are referring to here as there is no
such thing in Active Directory or Exchange.
A POP3 client today that uses iPlanet\Qpopper\Sendmail to be able to query a
directory for email addresses, download mail, and send mail would get no
benefits (on the client side) by shifting to Active Directory and Exchange
as the client setup will not change (the username and password might, but
thats it). The only real change is that POP3 and IMAP clients will get
meeting invites via email now and they will have to click on a link that
will take them to a web page where they have to decide on whether they want
to accept or decline the meeting invite. There are some significant server
side benefits however, but it sounds like you are interested in selling this
to users based on what they will get.
For Mac clients that use either Entourage (WebDAV), IMAP, or a POP3 client
their "email" features will not change by moving to AD and Exchange (meaning
no beneficial change or otherwise), but the webdav clients will most likely
get access to the calendar features (if somewhat limited). IMAP and POP3
clients get limited access to calendaring through OWA and if the person is
not using IE, then they will get the stripped down version of OWA, which
does not make the user experience much better from a client perspective.
The other downside for POP3 and IMAP clients (and webdav if it does not have
offline abilities) is that the customer will not have offline access to
their calendar, which can be very difficult for some people (especially if
you are using Meeting Maker, which does allow for offline usage).
If you are trying to provide an infrastructure that provides a stable mail
and collaborative environment Exchange is a good choice, but be aware of the
challenges that your non-MAPI clients will face. While Exchange certainly
is (today) more open to other clients then Outlook (through WebDAV, IMAP,
and POP3), the features that non-Outlook clients get are not what an Outlook
MAPI client gets (not even close). The only way to succeed in an Exchange
roll out in an environment such as yours is effective training and tolerant
customers (or customers who are willing to use Outlook either on the desktop
or through Citrix).
I may come off as bitter, but I only intend to show you the reality of your
situation and what your customers will face as I have been through this
quite a few times as an Exchange consultant. Exchange and AD are wonderful
platforms, but today they still work best in a Windows infrastructure with
Windows clients (although this is getting better every year).
Just my 2 cents based on past experience.
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