[Gllug] Linux Petition

[Alain Williams]

On Tue, Apr 03, 2012 at 04:04:02PM +0100, James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> On 3 April 2012 15:40, John Hearns <hearnsj at googlemail.com> wrote:
> > On 03/04/2012, Alain Williams <addw at phcomp.co.uk> wrote:
> >> > They way to the desktop is to replace the applications, one by one (firefox,
> >> OoO, ...), until for most people the underlying operating system is
> >> irrelevant
> >> as the apps that they use work under most things: MS Windows, Linux, OS/X.
> >>
> >
> > I couldn't agree with you more.
> > That's what Joe User wants - he or she doesn't give a stuff about the OS.
> > Joe User however quite frequently gets hostile to Jim Computerbuff
> > when non-Windows operating systems are being proposed - what they
> > REALLY mean is "Whine whine.... it doesn't run Outlook/Office"
> >
> >
> >>
> >> Regarding MS Exchange. Is there yet a *good* free drop in replacement, ie
> >> one
> >> that lets people continue to use MS Outlook, will also play with Thunderbird
> >> &
> >> Evolution ?
> >
> > It is the shared calendaring which makes Outlook a lock-in to many companies.
> > People depend on it very closely for their day to day work.
> 
> What is needed is a standard interface between components. There needs
> to be standards for messaging, not just the transmission of the

There are plenty of 'standards', the problem is that some of them are
proprietary and deliberately obscured. The one in this case is 'MAPI' -- look it up.

> message, but also the automated processing and understanding of the
> messages.
> So, if an Outlook user invites me to a meeting, I get an email
> message. It would be nice if my calendar application could receive the
> email, understand it, and reply to accept/reject the meeting.

That is the easy bit. The MS Outlook meeting invitations are in plain text and
not too hard to parse.

> I would prefer the emails and calendar to be stored centrally, with my
> laptop having a cached version.

Email is not a problem. The IMAP protocol does that nicely. But many people
regard email as including the calendar/groupware function. It has to be said
that MS does integrate this in a way that many people like.

The the problem is how to talk to a MS Exchange server, in particular the
protocol (wrapped up in MAPI) to query/set/... meeting dates, etc.
MS has made it hard for independant/free implementation. This means that you
cannot rip out MS exchange, which in turn means that you need MS LDAP and a MS
Server of some sort.

It also means that if you want to use the calendaring in a nice way then you
have to use MS Outlook - Thunderbird/evolution don't do that well.

The MS exchange replacement problem is not helped by things like blackberry only
having a pluging/connection to MS Exchange.

> Outlook calendar is stored centrally, which is why other people can
> see your "busy" times when trying to organize a meeting.
> What is holding things back is that people are still using pop3 and
> imap instead of more modern protocols technologies, such as the one
> used between the gmail android app and google.
> Just displaying the 10 most up to date emails on my smart phone great.
> Low bandwidth requirements, and I always have an option to fetch older
> ones. POP3 and IMAP do not have these features.

Check rfc3501 - 6.3.1.  SELECT Command -- has a RECENT option:
Also 6.3.2.  EXAMINE Command

> So, I conclude that open source is kind of backward when it comes to
> email and calendar programs.


-- 
Alain Williams
Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  http://www.phcomp.co.uk/
Parliament Hill Computers Ltd. Registration Information: http://www.phcomp.co.uk/contact.php
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