Petition to Get Ximian Connector Ported to Mac OS X

babbage writes "There has been some talk recently on various mailing lists about getting a Mac OS X version of Ximian Connector extension to Evolution, which allows Evolution to interact with Microsoft Exchange 2000 servers much as Microsoft Outlook can. It is already possible to build and run Gnome and Evolution on Mac OS X, thanks largely to projects such as Fink. Ximian is aware of this interest, and has indicated that if enough users expressed a serious interest in buying the product -- the target number was 500 paying users -- they would be willing to produce a Mac OS X port of Connector. To that end, I've set up an petition to help gauge user interest."

Comments

So what you're saying is...

[Rope_a_Dope]

Let me get this straight. You want people on Slashdot to admit to using Microsoft Exchange?

Clarification

[babbage]

One note: the headline used isn't the one I was expecting. It's not that Ximian has ported Connector, but that I feel people would like to see the company offer a port in the future, and would be willing to pay for it if such a port were to become available. The way the headline is written makes it seem as if it's already happened, but that's not the case.

A fortune waiting to be made

[d0n quix0te]

To the first good, cocoa based exchange compatible client. I can easily see 100k-500k licenses. I bet, Ximian can make more money on a OS X native exchange client than anything else.

But these guys seem to be blinded by the GNU cause and don't want to make money.

Think about it Entourage is priced at $150. And lacks Exchange or group scheduling functionality.
Make a cocoa based PIM with group scheduling and exchange support. You can sell it for $100-$150. Even at a modest 50,000-100,000 units sold that is $5-10 million dollars. This is not improbable given that the number of OS X customers by year end is ~3 million.

Ximian should get off their ass, hire a Cocoa programmer and develop such a product.

OT: What _is_ a good exchange client?

[psxndc]

Let me preface this by saying I set up Evolution under SuSE 7.3 at home a couple weeks ago for general mail and calendaring and it is fantastic! Truly an enterprise level application. Until reading the blurb, I didn't think Evolution had been ported to OS X though. That being said, assuming that it hasn't, what then _is_ a good exchange client for OS X? I want something that can download my mail and especially my calendar. If it has been ported, great, my question is answered. Otherwise, I'd love to hear what people use.

psxndc