[nylug-talk] The futureof Zimbra after Microsoft's bid forYahoo!

[Ron Guerin]

Ajai Khattri wrote:
> On Wed, 6 Feb 2008, Ron Guerin wrote:

>>  So my guess is that Apple has no intention of trying 
>> to play nice with Exchange groupware, and will attempt their own 
>> solution that works transparently with Microsoft clients.
> 
> It would be awesome if they bring out a drop-in Exchange replacement but 
> Im not holding my breath.

I'm making this up as I go along, and I think it's *possible*, but I 
have no idea how probable.  Steve Jobs does want to take over the world 
though, so I have to think he's got an idea or two about how Exchange 
helps maintain the Windows dominance of corporate desktops.  To really 
play in that market you need to have both a server that provides highly 
similar functionality, and you need a plugin for Outlook.  If you were 
drop-in, that'd be super, but I don't think a plugin for Outlook is a 
deal-breaker, so long as they get the shared calendars, address books, 
and some kind of ability to run custom groupware applications.  Given 
that Apple's scripting solution most certainly won't be BASIC based, it 
might then arguably be the best implementation of Windows groupware you 
can buy.  I haven't seen the latest Notes, but what I'd seen of its 
predecessor left me highly unimpressed.

In any case, whatever Apple does as far as groupware goes, undoubtedly 
will be of little use to us over here in FOSS-land.

Anyway, I think we're waaay off topic now, unless someone can drag us 
back by extolling virtues of KOffice I'm not aware of.

- Ron