IP: Dan Gillmor:`Get a Mac' advice no easy answer

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Kevin Browne" <kevinbr () microsoft com>
Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 15:28:11 -0800
To: <dgillmor () sjmercury com>, <dave () farber net>
Cc: "Linda Stone" <lindas () microsoft com>, "Erik Ryan"
<erikryan () microsoft com>
Subject: RE: Dan Gillmor:`Get a Mac' advice no easy answer

Hi, Dan and David. I want to provide some information in answer to Dan's
column (and David's question) about the problem of connecting to Microsoft
Exchange servers from a Mac running Mac OS X. I agree: it is confusing that
we have 2 premier email/PIM clients on the Mac (Entourage and Outlook).
There is a lot of history that brought us to this point is, but there were
good reasons why we did an Outlook that connects to Exchange only, and an
Entourage that connects to IMAP/POP/Hotmail, but doesn't work natively with
Exchange. 

The question you're both asking is, what are we going to do about it? Dan's
column does a good job of summarizing the challenges we face in answering
that question. It would make more sense for there to be one good email/PIM
client on Mac OS X that addresses the needs of the Exchange user and the
Internet mail user. We¹d face some tough technical hurdles to building that,
and we¹d need to prioritize the work so we could deliver the most important
capabilities first. So, while we have not decided yet how to address the
issue, we are talking with a lot of customers to make sure we understand
their requirements. We've posted a survey on our Microsoft Mactopia website
(<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/community/survey/ol_exchange.asp
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/community/survey/ol_exchange.asp> >) to help
us gather data from customers using Exchange. I would encourage both of you
to participate in the survey, and to send me additional thoughts you may
have so that we can meet your needs.

Sincerely, 


Kevin F. Browne 
GM, MacBU 
Microsoft Corp. 
425.706.6784