Mac Forum / Applications / Mac Applications / April 2007

This is one of my favorite discussions (about Entourage connecting to
Exchange), so fair warning. :-)

I'm aware of no guidelines defining what constitutes a "real" Exchange
client. What specifically makes a "real" Exchange client in your view?
Is it features? Speed? Something else?

Entourage uses WebDAV (not OWA) to connect to Exchange. Do you think
this is better than its Windows counterpart MAPI? If so, why? WebDAV
isn't limiting Entourage's feature set. Time and resources for
development do that.

A bit of Outlook 2001 and Entourage history:

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If you're familiar with large corporate structures then you'll
understand that while Microsoft is indeed one large company, it is made
of many separate business groups. Not all have the same resources and
capabilities depending on the products they produce. And they don't
always share or cooperate with each other.

Outlook 98 and 2001 for Mac were developed by the Exchange Server group
within Microsoft. It was this group that ceased development of Outlook
for Mac.

The Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) realized this would leave a huge
hole in the corporate world for Macs. They decided to pick up the
Exchange client development for Macs.

Why didn't they just continue with Outlook? Because they already had
Entourage. You may recall that Entourage was a home email client before
it was ever an Exchange client. Because they already had the code base
for Entourage (and other more political reasons that can plague large
corporations) they decided to make Entourage the next Mac Exchange
client rather than trying to develop two similar but different products.

Entourage X 10.1.6 was the first stab at connecting Entourage to
Exchange. You'll notice this new connectivity was introduced not in
10.0.0 and not in 10.1.0 but in 10.1.6. That should indicate to you that
was a minor update to Entourage and not a full implementation for
Exchange connectivity. The MacBU *scrambled* to get *something* released
for Mac Exchange users for Mac OS X where nothing except Outlook 2001 in
Classic mode existed. Keep in mind that at this point the MacBU is
picking up what the Exchange Server business unit simply dropped.

Entourage 2004 introduced many new Exchange features. Technically, this
was the first iteration of it offering anything remotely close to what
Outlook 2001 offered. The MacBU had a decision to make: they could
either go with Microsoft proprietary protocols (MAPI) and file formats
(OST and PST) or they could go with *standards*. "Standards" would be
WebDAV and MBOX file formats. A tough decision but one that today allows
you to more easily move information between Apple Mail, iCal and the
Address Book as well as other applications.

Entourage 2004 11.0.0 was just a first attempt at getting in the
features that were most needed in an Exchange client. It was *not* an
attempt to get in *every* feature that Outlook for Windows offers. The
MacBU simply doesn't have the resources to port over everything from
Windows. They're also responsible for Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Remote
Desktop Connection and Messenger. And they're a tiny group.

Entourage 2004 sp2 (11.2.0) was a major release for Exchange support. In
fact it was almost entirely an Exchange support release that
incorporated even more needed features. Again, they weren't trying to
get in *every* feature, just more. And they had to prioritize those
features based on customer feedback. You may think that things like
server side rules and PST files were a huge oversight. But really these
were just lower on the priority list compared to the need for better
public folder support, the ability to browse the GAL (not just search),
etc.

=====

Based on the above I have every confidence that the MacBU will continue
to add Exchange features to Entourage bringing it more into line with
the capabilities of Outlook for Windows. They've been very aggressive
about it for the short amount of time they've had to get this far.

Outlook for Mac was never as full-featured as Outlook for Windows.
So, insinuating that Entourage is not a full-featured Exchange client
compared to Outlook 2001 is a bit of a misnomer. Entourage may not have
the *same* feature set as Outlook for Mac but it definitely has some
Exchange features that were not present before such as HTTP for Internet
access (using OWA), certificate support, scripting support and IM
integration.

Whole-heartedly, I would like to see a lot of the features from Outlook
come into Entourage such as PST files, ability to set server side rules,
support for documents in Public Folders and support for Tasks and Notes.
But comparing Outlook for Mac's feature set to Entourage's feature set is
comparing apples to oranges.

bill

??? what features of Exchange aren't available?   I've got Entourage
running at work and can create calendar events, send invites, respond to
invites; access the email directories, do various email stuff.   I admit
to having no use for document collaboration.

Hi Winston:

That's one sick Vista machine :-)  Vista is about as stable as OS X once you
get it going.  However, some of the "Early adopters" among the PC Vendors
tried to fill it with rubbish that doesn't work right with Vista.

They have learned not to do that now :-)  Save those Service Packs: you will
need them again...

For a long and happy life, I could suggest that you back all teh data off
the wife's machine, then Nuke it From Orbit...

1)  Put the Microsoft-manufacturerd DVD of Vista in the slot.

2)  When it asks you what to do, say "Fresh install".  This gets rid of all
the rubbish that the PC Vendor might have added.

3)  Now do a totally-default installation of Vista.

4)  When that completes, DISABLE Automatic Updates (we're about to run it
and we don't want two instances running at the same time or it will lock
up).

5)  Run Windows Update in Customise mode, and keep running it until it
offers you nothing new (you may have to run it three times, rebooting each
time).  It can only put in the updates that apply to whatever is already
there, so as it builds up your system it will offer more and more updates.
Mac OS X Software Update will do the same thing on a default fresh
installation.

6)  Once you get Vista installed and FULLY updated, including all the
drivers for all the variuous bits of hardware, THEN and not until then, you
can install your software.  Including Office 2000.

7)  Then reapply the service packs to Office 2000.  (Obviously, since you
just installed the software, the service packs have not been applied to the
new installation yet.)

IF you do all of that, Vista should be very solid.  It may be a bit slow
(turn off the eye-candy if it's slow) but it will be very stable.

The rubbish PC manufacturers put on their PCs to try to make them
"Different" from one another is at best a waste of disk space, and often
prevents the thing ever working reliably :-)

Cheers