[Evolution] Congrats to Ximian/OO developers + more ammo!

[Kevin Cullis <kevincu orci com>]

I'd just like to say thanks to all of the Evo and OO developers who are
now talking to each other and collaborating on integrating Evo, OO, and
whatever else can communicate with each app into something workable.  As
a business user, I've been disgusted many a times with apps failing to
share information/tasks/whatever which caused me many a headache. To me,
this is a MAJOR step in the right direction to getting something that
will allow Linux to move into the desktop area with meaningful
influence.  When I've mentioned this to a few business people, they're
pleased as punch to get out of the proprietary model and into your
collaborative model of sharing information between apps.

Now for some good news to tell you all. I'm consulting with a small to
medium size company who just today was approached by a vendor to handle
their MS Office licensing issues, for a fee of course!  When the IT
person mentioned that the company was seriously considering Open Source
software (Linux + Evo + SO) to replace Office 97 and Win 95 as company
standards.  The one, shrugged their shoulders with a look that said
"Then what am I doing here," the second, after the first had left the
conference room for a minute, asked "WOW, you're actually SERIOUSLY
considering dumping Office for Open Source?!!"  When the IT person said
that Microsoft was stopping support of Windows 95 this year, that they
were seriously looking at upgrading their systems (about 350 systems and
spending about $1,000,000/year in IT costs) within the year and that
Open Source software has NOW taken front stage in their evaluation of
software.  They consider that sacrificing 5-10% of functionality of
Office 97 for costs that are incurred is a MAJOR consideration.  You
must also know that they remotely administer over 160 sites, WORLDWIDE,
with varying degrees of technology.  AND, most of the things they use
are Office and Outlook!  Your efforts ARE being looked at by more than a
few businesses and they look at it from a STRATEGIC advantage over their
competitors, so don't think that your efforts are for naught!

This is EXACTLY what needs to be worked on (barring any more good
suggestions):

> > > So, what is 'groupware'?
> > >     * calendaring
> > >     * email access
> > >     ? newsgroup access
> > >     * email alias/list management
> > >     * shared file access (webdav?)
> > >     * todo lists
> > >     * project/progress tracking
> > >     * address book(s)
> >
> >         * document management (in contrast to mere shared file access)
> >       * workflow management
> >       * knowledge databases
> >       * telephony integration

Now, if you would consider if some of the above apps would work with
command line stuff, you'd get the Linux power users ;-)

Anyway, thanks for getting together and discussing things and keep up
the good work.

Kevin