[Evolution] [Michael Merideth <mikem cravetechnology com>] Re: [discuss] Is OO working with Helixcode (now Ximian) inintegrating some stuff?

[Garrett Mickelson <garrett penguincomputing com>]

I would have to agree with this guy's point. He posted this message to
the Open Office mail list, and makes a fine statement in regards to the
definition of "groupware". I personally would like to see Open Office
use whatever backend Evolution uses to store contacts and calendars, and
that this be available as a server product, i.e. Evolution Server.....

Garrett Mickelson 

Forwarded message:
> This is close to what I've been looking for, but for some reason I'm 
> feeling almost alone on the calendaring/task stuff.  I agree with the 
> point earlier in this thread that the loss of Schedule Server with OO is 
> a MAJOR loss, and will probably prevent me from being able to suggest OO 
> as a reasonable standard for my employer (absent an alternative solution 
> that can integrate, such as what Evolution _should_ be).
>
> Evolution is a super-fine product, but absent a CENTRAL calendaring/task 
> management server, it's not possible to see resource/participant 
> availability or task lists in realtime.  This is a huge shortcoming in 
> the Linux world, and a major reason why even Linux-friendly shops are 
> still stuck on Exchange and will remain so, IMHO.
>
> <RANT>Until OO or Evolution begin interoperating with a centralized data 
> store for tasks and appointments, Linux will still not be able to make a 
> dent in Exchange environments.  In my mind, Evolution looks like a 
> brilliant piece of software from the standpoint of duplicating the 
> interface of Outlook, but without shared tasks and appointments, the 
> whole project is an empty gesture, and the OO group would do well to 
> assume that it won't be the final messaging solution for the Gnome 
> desktop.  vCalendar/iCalendar is nice and all, but without a central 
> store for the information, there's no way to know what others in my 
> workgroup are up to.  THAT's the killer functionality in Outlook that 
> forces so many shops to use exchange.  Let me say that again:  THE REASON 
> SO MANY SHOPS ARE STUCK WITH EXCHANGE IS THE ABILITY TO SEE AND 
> MANIPULATE OTHER PEOPLE'S SCHEDULES AND TASK LISTS.  StarOffice 5.2 has 
> this functionality, in the form of the StarSchedule server.  Why throw it 
> away?
>
> Am I insane here?  Does no one else feel this way?  Why duplicate the 
> interface of Outlook when you're not going to duplicate THE MOST 
> IMPORTANT FEATURE?  Why throw the feature away once you have it?  I get 
> the feeling that many OSS projects fail to take into account that in the 
> end, in many many cases, deployment in the real world will depend on 
> selling the product to a PHB.  Even PHB's know that Exchange blows 
> chunks, but they still demand it for the groupware functionality.  Once 
> Exchange is in place, it doesn't make any sense to use anything but MS 
> Office.  Once MS Office is in place, it's no longer practical to use 
> Linux on the desktop.</RANT>
>
> -Mike
>
>
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>
> On 1/12/01, 2:57:05 PM, David "A." Cobb <superbiskit home com> wrote 
> regarding Re: [discuss] Is OO working with Helixcode (now Ximian) 
> inintegrating  some stuff?:
>
>
> > Here's a trial balloon.  FIRST, don't cut the Windoze or MAC or Warp or 
> Other
> > users off at the knees by integrating to a platform they can't get.
>
> > Having said that, I want to have one and only one address book
> > database/application on my machine.  Right now I don't even know how many 
> I have
> > and no two agree.  Ditto for calendars and the like, but I don't use them 
> as
> > much.
> > Second - _I_ want to make the choice!  Among products that satisfy
> > requirement#1, anyway.
>
> > Therefore, I propose using the vCard (iCard), vCalendar (iCalendar) work 
> to
> > establish a public schema and API for 
> calendaring/contact-list/form-letter/etc
> > stuff.  Then let the OOo applications use that defined interface.  If one 
> or
> > several of us can put up a working data server that could provide these
> > functions in the absence of something "better" (in the eyes of the user), 
> then
> > that would be a Very Good Thing:  from the viewpoint of competition, we 
> can't
> > afford not to have a mail-merge function.
>
> > Maybe I'm just talking off the top of my bald head.  The SO52 Address 
> Book
> > starts by identifying certain fields that must be present.  Maybe we can 
> stop at
> > that point and say that any datasource which supplies these fields - say 
> by ODBC
> > connection - can be configured for all the Address Book functions in OO.  
> If the
> > user can identify a way to serve the SQL statement: "SELECT [a] AS 
> FIRSTNAMES,
> > [b] AS LASTNAMES, <etc> FROM "Somewhere in the ether" WHERE "whatever I 
> like,"
> > then the OO application should be able to use the results.
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: discuss-unsubscribe openoffice org
> For additional commands, e-mail: discuss-help openoffice org



-- 

Garrett Mickelson, Linux Systems Engineer
Telephone: 415.358.2600   http://www.penguincomputing.com

Penguin Computing - The World's Most Reliable Linux Systems