Switching to Mac...Need software advice

[Oddball_Inc.]

Hey all,

I was hoping that I could get some guidance for a good Outlook replacment. My company let's us use PowerBooks and the change has been great; however, I'm trying to identify the best mail client to use with Exchange.

I use all of Outlook/Exchanges features: Calendar/Tasks/Contacts/etc...

Any help is appreciated.
OB

[geneman]

Hey all,

I was hoping that I could get some guidance for a good Outlook replacment. My company let's us use PowerBooks and the change has been great; however, I'm trying to identify the best mail client to use with Exchange.

I use all of Outlook/Exchanges features: Calendar/Tasks/Contacts/etc...

Any help is appreciated.
OB

Microsoft's equivalent on the mac is called Entourage. I don't use it personally. If you don't want to pay, your mac should come with mail, iCal and Address Book (I'm sure you can guess their functions). They are not one app but they are somewhat integrated and I find them working quite well.

[Bryson]

As Geneman says, Entourage is a direct Outlook replacement. In fact, I think Entourage is a better piece of software than Outlook. It'll come with Microsoft Office if you're planning to get that anyway. (Which I assume you will, if you're using the P'book as a direct replacement for your Windows machine.)

[kretara]

Yup, Entourage will work....occasionally.
My email 'database' is about 2 gigs in size and I have run into lots of problems with entourage slowing down and just stopping. Each time I would have to rebuild the database (about once every 2-3 weeks) and sometimes I would have to reinstall the app :mad:

Since I am forced to work in an AD/Exchange environment I use the 'exchange' feature in Mail.app. This is only for email (I refuse to use a calendar). If your exchange admins are in a nice mood they might turn on IMAP for you. You will be able to use Thunderbird or Mail.app with IMAP. Be warned, MS has intentionally crippled IMAP to keep exchange users on 'lookout' so you might have occasional weirdness when using IMAP. I certainly do.

We recently moved from the Sun One email/calendar/ldap system to AD/Exchange and let me tell you, AD/Exchange really sucks ass.
IMAP is all f'ed up now. Getting/sending email is slower. Lots of mysterious lags and stoppages. All sorts of clutter caused by the mailboxes forced on you by lookout. It was definately a change for the worse even though the Sun One system was pretty lame.
It would be pretty nice if Apple would make a full system of their own or would jump on board with SUSE (Novell?) and their system.

[kscherer]

You can also look in to Eudora:

http://www.eudora.com/

One of the best mail clients on the market.

Entourage 2004 is a good option. Has pretty good project management software built in. Only problem is you have to pad BG's wallet to get it. :(