I am currently employed by Symantec Corporation, and I have very few complaints about the company. I think it can be said of all large companies that the good things in the company are great and the bad things in the company are terrible. Symantec does a lot to make sure that their employees are taken care of. They have been very generous to me.
With that said, I have a general complaint about the "Enterprise" (I use that work in quotes to mean very, very large company). My complaint is with Microsoft Exchange. Microsoft has done a great job of keeping out the competitors because there are no server and no client alternatives.
I would like to run linux as my desktop, but I cannot because Evolution is just quirky enough to be counter-productive. Since I must have my email and calendar up and running at all times, I have been reduced to being on the windows platform. I could move to the Mac, but that will be another hardware purchase, which I am not quite ready to do.
I like standards base email. I can use whatever client I want on whatever platform I want. I like web based email that help me be productive. The Microsoft "webmail" is not productive at all, so it is not an option unless you get 3 emails a day and don't have an meetings.
We need a standards based email and notification system that we can use on our desktops and mobile phones. It must be secure and easy to use. What is the problem with enterprises moving their email systems to google or yahoo? They would save a lot of money, I'm sure.
It is funny that I have been struggling with the problem for 10 years. In 1998, I could have written the exact same blog post. That is what makes this depressing. Are there any better options today?
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