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Javier Soltero: The Outsider Microsoft Tapped To Reinvent Outlook (windowsitpro.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the new-blood dept.

v3rgEz writes: In a wide ranging interview, IT Pro talks with Microsoft's Javier Soltero about his plans to help Redmond get its groove back when it comes to email, walking a fine line between keeping traditional Outlook users (and IT administrators) happy while radically reworking software that hasn't seen a huge shakeup since 2003.

4 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Really? by DanJ_UK · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Outlook isn't the fucking problem, exchange and its bastardised architecture is.

    To this day I cannot fathom why companies would ever roll out a proprietary exchange setup when there are better solutions available, at a significantly lower cost. Solutions that are more reliable, more secure and better supported cross platform.

    --
    - Dan
    1. Re:Really? by chipschap · · Score: 3, Interesting

      To be fair, there are FOSS solutions that do these things on a local/group basis. There's lots of groupware that provides most of these functions.

      But I do have to admit that Microsoft has the whole stack, if you want to buy into it and pay the price. I don't agree that the individual elements of the stack are anything like best in class, but the integration is definitely there, and it's scalable beyond most FOSS groupware (at least as far as I know the market).

  2. Re:Sigh by Slick_W1lly · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So.. great. Now this guy can go into the same bin as that dude who pushed systemd. The 'Clusterfuck of Things I didn't want..."

    2003 outlook was the last I actually liked. I hung onto it for as long as I possibly could before being forced to upgrade to.. I dunno.. whatever it is out there now. It had a reasonably nice UI, it was quick and did a bunch of stuff I liked. The UI wasn't splattered all over the place and it had nice bevelled buttons and stuff, instead of the flat bollocks that is the current trend. I mean, I have what.. three choices of 'theme' now? White, 'light grey' and 'dark grey' - none of which are much use in allowing me to distinguish between parts of the interface..

    So.. now I know who to blame. .

  3. Re:just go ahead and call it ReInvent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Please don't. It's hard to think of a more bloated resource hog, far too much for what it is supposed to do, and yet still lacking in basic features in other areas.

    I despise Exchange, all the more because I have been so long forced to administer it (since the Exchange 97 days).

    As a user, I newer appreciated Exchange+Outlook before I moved to a different company that use Google Apps instead. There might be better alternatives than both of them, but right now I miss Exchange+Outlook so f'ing much.