Is Exchange 2007 really a ‘step in the right direction’ for Mac users?
As with most things, Microsoft still has the advantage over Apple in the business market with one of the most sought after software products being Exchange. A lot of people in the business world can’t live without it, so what happens if you decide to leave your PC behind and go in to the world of the Mac?
As with most Microsoft products, it’s not fully developed for the Apple platform but could Exchange 2007 finally have some stability for Mac users?
Well let’s look at the most popular email client for Mac – Entourage.
Entourage is used by a lot of Mac users. It’s the closest thing to Outlook, not quite having all the options, but it works. If you compare the capabilities of Outlook & Entourage, you’re going to find a lot more crosses in the boxes of the latter, but if it sends & receives mail does this matter?
Of course Entourage 2008 is supported by Exchange 2000, 2003 & 2007, so what actually makes Exchange 2007 different? I think the key thing is stability. Apple seem to have worked out a lot of bugs from previous versions of Entourage to ensure business users can easily adapt to the platform. As we all know, Apple want people to move from PCs in their business to Macs, so they have got to make sure there is the stability & support for this setup.
Exchange 2007 seems to do the trick for the Mac users who are wanting a stable Exchange setup without having to be on the PC platform. PC users will always have the better support for such software but Exchange seems to gel a lot nicer with the Entourage 2008 than its predecessors. This recent version also includes email & calendar support which seemed to fall short in previous versions.
BUT…change is ahead!!
Microsoft have recently announced that the next version of Office for Mac will arrive in late 2010…with Outlook REPLACING Entourage. That’s right, after all the work that’s been put in to Entourage, Microsoft are changing the setup! I have to say though, I am glad. I much prefer Outlook over Entourage. It is the original email client & as it’s a Microsoft product it is fully supported. Of course Entourage is a Microsoft product, but the production was overseen by Apple. Outlook is clearly the better option as Mac users already rely on Microsoft products such as Exchange and the Office suite, both of which are commonly used on the Mac. What better way for Mac users to make sure there are no problems than to use a proven product on their platform?
Although Microsoft calls it more of a “name change” than anything, you can be assured they will put their mark on it. The Mac version of Outlook will still differ from the PC version (you didn’t really think Microsoft were going to make it that easy did you?!) but the most important features will be available so I don’t think it will be anything to worry about.
On a positive note, Exchange will have a better compatibility with Outlook on the Windows platform. This, for me, is always a must for businesses, as a lot of people are still caught up in the debate over which to use, PC or Mac, so there tends to be a lot of mixing of platforms used.
We will see next year what the outcome of this change is…!
