What stops me from going OO.org? PIM!

[ccornell]

You do have an alternative to MS Outlook.... it's called Thunderbird and Lightning.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/

[Sileah]

Do these programs in concert allow you to talk directly to an exchange server that does NOT have OWA setup?

if not, then they are NOT replacements for Outlook.

[Sileah]

I hate to resurrect an old thread, but I just learned that the Evolution PIM/email program is now available for Windows.

http://www.dipconsultants.com/evolution/

Unfortunately, it still isn't available for OSX... yet.

Doesn't work with Exchange 5.5

[DrewJensen]

Do these programs in concert allow you to talk directly to an exchange server that does NOT have OWA setup?

if not, then they are NOT replacements for Outlook.

Well, would connecting via iMAP be a better choice? That would depend on your Exchange beig configured to support iMap but if so then yes T'bird can use it.

One reference on this that seems reasonably clear is:
http://www.seoras.com/2008/06/13/gettin ... om-ububtu/

[krabina]

You should definitely have a look at Zimbra: http://www.zimbra.com. It's a Exchange competitor and has also a Desktop version.

Just migrated 20 Users from Outlook XP/Exchange to Zimbra with a 15 minute introduction (no further user trainings necessary so far). Users are regular office staff, no IT experts. They like it very much!

- Bernhard

[rardoe]

As I read this thread and listen to everyone, I saw one good point..... Outlook is $110 as a standalone app... The real point that everyone is missing is that Outlook is FREE. For each licensed user of Exchange comes a one user license of Outlook. If you buy the media kit w. Exchange server, there is an Outlook cd included. So, if you need a PIM w/ OO that includes support for Exchange, use Outlook...

[Fiachra6]

I don't see the harm of a PIM program in OOo. It would also be good if you could use OOo Writer as the text editor. If you are concerned about the download size then you could have it available as an optional part of the download. Anyway as high speed broadband gets more common, and much faster, people will hardly notice the difference. When I downloaded OOo 3.0 a week ago, after formatting my hard drive and re-installing my OS due to glitches, it only took me twenty minutes.

I use Outlook a lot, and it is about the only MS Office application that I use. The only thing that I see against it is extra work for the programmers, but if they write a PIM program, then I will use it. It will also save me a lot of money, if I get a new computer (I already installed MS Office on three computers, which is the maximum amount of times you can).

[Villeroy]

The only thing that I see against it is extra work for the programmers, but if they write a PIM program, then I will use it. It will also save me a lot of money

[Fiachra6]

The only thing that I see against it is extra work for the programmers, but if they write a PIM program, then I will use it. It will also save me a lot of money

But my dear sir, wasn't OOo written so that everyone could have a functioning office suite, without having to pay MS's prices? So naturally it would save me a substantial bit of money. And yes, I never learned code, so I have no idea how much effort it takes to write programs, I only use them a lot.

[TheGurkha]

The way I see it, OOo was written to provide productivity tools to help with document production.

If you want free, open source email, then install Thunderbird, and if you want to have calendars as well then install the Lightning plug-in for Thunderbird.

[ccornell]

wasn't OOo written so that everyone could have a functioning office suite, without having to pay MS's prices?

OOo was originally written by a German company called StarDivision. At that time it was known as StarOffice (actually it started life in the mid 80's as StarWriter on the ZilogZ80 around the exact same time Word 1.0 was released by Microsoft). Sun Microsystems bought it up StarOffice in 1999 and released it as open source under the name OpenOffice.org not long afterwards.

OpenOffice.org was not written to avoid paying MS's prices.... it currently happens to be used as such, but it certainly didn't start out that way.

As for PIM, Thunderbird + Lightning is the solution offered by Sun for StarOffice, and it works equally well for OpenOffice.org. See http://wikis.sun.com/display/StarOffice ... laboration for example.

[Anthony Lynch]

Well, Office Outlook has the ability of using Word as the e-mail editor, which offers numerous advantages over Thunderbird. That's why I think it would be worth while of OOo to design a PIM program.

[Hagar Delest]

And what would be the benefit? A mail is just a text. You can have some HTML formatting if needed (but personally, if only raw text was allowed, it would be better).

[mfauci]

I've been using OO since it was called Star Office (OK, so I'm dating myself). It's always been a great app and it has greatly improved since the original release. I could never fully understand why it didn't sink the MS Office ship years ago - perhaps the lack of the PIM is one reason (but I think the reasons are more varied and more complicated).

This discussion is great because a few years ago we decided to build a new PIM called StratoVista. We thought that OO users are one among many groups who would like to have a viable alternative PIM. It took us 18 months to release our first free product called Noah and now, about 18 months later we just released a (low cost) premium version of it (which is in currently free) in a Beta release called StratoVista (www.stratovista.com).

The basic concept was to build a feature-rich PIM client that uses free Web services (like Google Calendar, Blogger, Docs etc.) as an "exchange server". As a result it's a very Internet-centric application that includes a number of unique features. We would love to get some feedback from the folks on this post to see how well we've done. You will find a feature list here (http://www.stratovista.com/Features.htm), and a User Manual with embedded video tutorials here (http://www.stratovista.com/Tutorial.htm).

Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions on how we can improve it.

[Villeroy]

mfauci,
How would you create a serial letter in Writer with addresses pulled from your PIM? I can't try since I don't use Windows.

[mfauci]

"How would you create a serial letter in Writer with addresses pulled from your PIM? I can't try since I don't use Windows."


If I understand your question correctly, you're asking how to use StratoVista to create a file containing the addresses (from StratoVista) for the Writer Mail Merge Wizard to pull from . . .?

StratoVista has a contact sync function that works with Gmail. Do the sync between StratoVista and Gmail (takes three clicks and a few seconds) and then output the addresses from Gmail using one of three Gmail output formats (Google's CSV format, Outlook's CSV format or vCard format) to create the file for Mail Merge.

If you use one of the CSV formats, OO will automatically open it in Calc with everything neatly organized in specific columns. Once there (with your addresses in a Calc spreadsheet) you can pretty much go anywhere with them within OO.

-MAF-

[lgusaas]

We thought that OO users are one among many groups who would like to have a viable alternative PIM. It took us 18 months to release our first free product called Noah and now, about 18 months later we just released a (low cost) premium version of it (which is in currently free) in a Beta release called StratoVista (http://www.stratovista.com).

Unfortunately, it is a Windoze only program.

I wish people would indicate what operating systems a program works on when they mention it. OO.o is a multi-platform program. It wastes my time when people mention programs and fail to indicate they are Windoze only.

[mfauci]

Sorry Dude. StratoVista is a XP/Vista app. We've been noodling a Java version, but no promises on a release date.

-MAF-

[Light Bringer]

Just installed OO 3.01 and the thing absolutely rocks.

It would be awesome if they provided and email program with it, then I would switch over. That and the issue I am having with Calc is what is stopping me.

[leukerdt]

Well, Office Outlook has the ability of using Word as the e-mail editor, which offers numerous advantages over Thunderbird. That's why I think it would be worth while of OOo to design a PIM program.

I agree. It's not just the editing of the text that matters but with Word as an e-mail/text editor you can also use all the shortcuts (autotext etc.) you've created in Word.

The lack of a similar e-mail client is THE raison why I can't switch. So in my opinion adding an e-mail client that has Write as a text editor would be a tremendous boost for OOo that would be an MSOffice killer. Or is that what they are afraid of ?

Luc

[TheGurkha]

But the reality is, it is never going to happen. The resources being brought to bear on OOo are 100% tied up with maintaining and improving OOo as it stands. Developing a decent email client is a whole major project in itself - and there are already plenty of them out there to choose from.

[edovie]

I also want to point out that Microsoft Outlook is available as a stand-alone application, and can be purchased for $110 USD, so if you absolutely have to have Outlook, you can have it, use OpenOffice.org, and still save $290 over the cost of Microsoft Office Standard (or save $120 over the cost of an upgrade for Microsoft Office Standard).

Ha ha, good one.

But $110 is a heckuvalot.

[ICEJAS]

Creating an E-mail application that would rival Outlook would seriously increase the distribution and download of OO. This is one of those issues that should be made a priority but perhaps there is some sort of secret agreement between OO and MS not to cross the road of competition on that Outlook application.

Just my 2 cents on the issue!

= = =
IVAN CEJAS ( Lic. Real Estate Broker - Lic. Mortgage Broker )

Edit: Edited to remove personal details. TheGurkha.

[hawkeyewa]

To each of you who suggest Thunderbird and Lightning as an alternative to Outlook -- go check it out! These two, while being a good email program and a very marginal Calendar program may have functionality, it is the integration of a far better contact manager, calendar, email program with powerful editing capabilities that keeps people hooked to MS. A reasonable alternative to this within the suite would go miles. Those who think Outlook is a cumbersome email program are programming geeks (I am one too) and not real business users. OO seems to be geared toward the latter and in an office, Thunderbird and Lightning simply won't fly. Please stop talking around this concern if you aren't willing to address it. Until a reasonable alternative is available, business will continue to write their checks to MS and OO will remain hidden.

[TheGurkha]

We're not the developers, just users trying to help other users. The developers don't hang out here.

To report bugs or make suggestions, see this tutorial: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions

[ccornell]

People keep recommending Thunderbird/Lightning because it's the most easily/readily available cross platform email/calendar client. There certainly is better out there... Evolution for example is an excellent PIM... but it's designed for Linux.... that said, it appears that someone has made a Windows installer for it... maybe it's worth taking a look at? I don't know.. I haven't used Windows for 11 or 12 years now (work or home) so cannot speak for how well it runs.. or how god or bad the Windows build may be.

Evolution home page: http://projects.gnome.org/evolution/
Evolution for Windows installer: http://www.dipconsultants.com/evolution/

[mobi-doc]

I would like to add my thoughts about the lack of a Groupware client like Outlook in OOo. The absence is more obvious in linux environments.

Thunderbird/Lightning is a good way to go but it lacks memos, journals, filters, and synchronisation with mobile devices. Why the evolution of the program seems so slow? 5-6 years before not a lot of people used smartphones. Today almost everyone does and synchronisation and integration with mobile device is a must. TB/L programming team must change their priorities.

Evolution is also a good program (though I prefer color codes of TB/L in calendar categories), but is a linux only solution, and also lacks synchronisation with mobile devices (except PalmOS devices).

Kontact (KDEPim) is another good groupware client with a lot of features that the two previous programs don't have. But where is synchronisation? What happened to KitchenSync program. I thing it's MIA. And is it cross platform?

Is there a global conspiracy for linux not to ever have any decent Outlook alternative

[mauriceh780]

If I may step up and answer this?
GMail
Google Calendars
Google Docs
Picasa
Buzz
Wave
Voice
Maps
Videos
News
Translate
Books
Directions
Translation

[mobi-doc]

If I may step up and answer this?
GMail
Google Calendars
Google Docs
Picasa
Buzz
Wave
Voice
Maps
Videos
News
Translate
Books
Directions
Translation

I cannot consider the effort of a company to dominate the digital world as a decent open source groupware alternative.

[monkman71]

Trying to be as unbiased as possible, I would like to just make a conjecture here. It seems to me that all the people begging for a pim are people who sound like they are coming from a large business perspective and those who are opposed are casual users and programming geeks who are running maybe 1-5 computers. I am one of the latter but I am interning in an IT department at a credit union so I can DEFINITELY see where the people asking for a pim are coming from. Yes, the download size will increase but if you are trying upgrade/change/maintain multiple different computers it is still FAR easier to have everything packaged in one place rather than having to go on a 3 hour chase to get this program from here and that program from there.

I was specifically hired to do one thing while I am here. My job is to upgrade every computer my company owns (hundreds) to windows 7 as well as office 2010 and a few other specialty programs we use, all in one summer. This endeavor is costing us around 30 thousand dollars! We are buying about 50 new computers and upgrading the rest with better hardware but that still doesn't cost as much as the MS Office keys we are buying! I have pitched open office to everyone here multiple times but the only reason we don't switch and save our little non-profit organization literally tens of thousands of dollars is "no Outlook". We need something that will cover all our bases at once.

Just because some people do not use a pim often or on the same level as people in an office environment does not mean it doesn't have a place in an office suite. Keyword being "OFFICE". At home, I do not use spreadsheets. I haven't found a use for them in anything I do regularly and if it is possible, I usually uninstall the program that uses them. Does that mean that there could possibly be an office suite out there that doesn't have spreadsheet capabilities and still be taken seriously? Would Microsoft Office sell AT ALL without excel? It all depends on the end users needs and many MANY end users need a pim with the same functionality as, if not more than, outlook. There is simply no feasible way of deploying Thunderbird or Evolution or any other pim that I know of no matter how many plug-ins and work-arounds we use. Not on a scale of more than maybe 20 people.

Those of you who are saying there is no use for a pim in OOo almost invariably have some mention to a linux distribution or Mac os in your signature. Linux and Mac have their uses but 99 times out of 100, there wont be a company that uses an operating system other than Windoze on a large scale.

Before you say I am a brainwashed Microsoft junkie with a "package deal" way of thinking, let me just tell you that I currently have 6 computers that I run regularly on a small home network all in my bedroom. Three of them are running different versions of linux as their only os. The other three have virtualbox installed with at least 3 different linux distros a piece. One of the dedicated linux boxes is a server and I am currently trying to develop my own linux distribution from scratch. No, I'm not just modifying Ubuntu or tweaking some packages and gui options on a currently available distro and throwing it on a live CD. I mean from scratch.

I am not using this as an excuse to show off any technological muscle, I just know that I am not the first person to notice this divide between business and home users and I feel like the only way to really shed some light on this is to gain some respect from both sides.