Re: [Fwd: Re: [Evolution] read receipt function in evo]

["James D. Ivey" <james iveylaw com>]

On Wed, 2004-06-16 at 11:52, Tony Earnshaw wrote:
> James D. Ivey wrote:
>
> > Yea, and we can also do without e-mail altogether and just use the 
> > telephone.  That's not a legitimate answer to the posted question.
> > 
> > And, there's a very real and legitimate reason to ask for a return 
> > receipt.  It's not an invasion of privacy.
> [...]
>
> > Unless Ximian implements some features that aren't important to Ximian 
> > but are important to its users, evo will be relegated to "toy" status.  
> > I'm currently struggling to remain with my current distro of SuSE+Ximian 
> > in my business, but the lack of meaningful support in both components is 
> > forcing my hand to look around for another solution.
>
> For me Evo - I'm still on 1.4 - has oodles of reasons for making me 
> stick to it like glue. They're to many to roll out, but a couple would 
> be the LDAP implementation, the spelling implementation, the 
> comprehensive range of mail authorization possibilities, native language 
> (for me Norwegian Bokmål), the range of integration ... reply receipts 
> is *not* one of them - they make me burn up when I get them in 
> Thunderbird (in which I'm writing this). My clients love it - as a prof 
> mailadmin I have to make sure that a range of MUAs are available and 
> most clients choose for Evo, if they're offered it.
>
> If the only difference to Evo being a toy and not a toy is reply 
> receipts, then it's a pretty juvenile toy ;)
>
> --Tonni
Your points are all well-taken.  Like I said, I love Ximian (and evolution) and have for years.  But the attitude of we won't implemented requested standards because they don't feel like it just rubbed me the wrong way.  It's a lack of professionalism that makes me wonder in which way Ximian is headed.

I work with a myriad of suppliers and clients who all seem to use XP and Office.  Little incompatibilities crop up, many of them unrelated to Ximian and evo.  I really want to stay with Linux, but all these little things add up.  I just have to remind myself how it used to be before I migrated to Linux -- rebooting 3-10 days per workday.  I even fashioned a stick to reach the reset button on my case under my desk.

And, I used to be a software developer.  I understand that some things just aren't interesting to implement or fix.  And, as a developer, I had my own opinions of what the users *should* want and I often paid more attention to that than what they *actually* wanted.  Now, being on the other side of the fence, I see that users often try to meet their needs without bugging developers and, when they can't meet those needs, people ask for things for very good reasons.

Perhaps "toy" was harsh, but I think return receipts are an important feature for business users.  I think without it, evo risks being relegated to home users.  

I'll say it again: I love evo.  I just want to see it mature into real and meaningful competition for programs like Outlook.  Lack of return receipts may not prevent it from getting there, but developer aloofness could very well do that.

I'll drop this thread there.

-- 

James D. Ivey <james iveylaw com>

Law Offices of James D. Ivey

3025 Totterdell Street

Oakland, California 94611-1742

+1.510.336.1100

+1.510.336.1122 (fax)

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