Where's Scalix 11.5 ?

[les]

From the Zarafa site:

Brian Joseph, CEO at Zarafa, explains: “In 2010 we have experienced that many Scalix partners changed to Zarafa. And now we see many Scalix customers checking non-Linux-alternatives because they do not trust the Scalix roadmap promises anymore. We have decided to help these customers to continue to use Linux”.

Truth or trash talk... ?

It'd be nice if Scalix showed an interest in defending that statement from Zarafa.....

[PrisonMind]

@camerond01

truth! That's quite normal! No new features, poor support,many open BIG bugs (activesyns and mime errrors!) and no official statement from scalix!
i would look only to the homepage...last change 2009!!!!!! for me that is not a good sign!

[camerond01]

Maybe Brian Joseph should have said "now we see many Scalix customers checking non-Scalix alternatives because they do not trust Scalix anymore".

Still, better the devil you know than the one you don't. I've placed some faith in Scalix and Xandros by renewing my subscription for another year, and I'm hoping with some gentle prodding we can get some action out of one of them. After that year has elapsed is another story...

[les]

Maybe Brian Joseph should have said "now we see many Scalix customers checking non-Scalix alternatives because they do not trust Scalix anymore".

Still, better the devil you know than the one you don't. I've placed some faith in Scalix and Xandros by renewing my subscription for another year, and I'm hoping with some gentle prodding we can get some action out of one of them. After that year has elapsed is another story...

The trouble is that many many many people have been gently prodding and more heavily prodding for about a year now and we still have no idea what will happen with Scalix, where it's going to go etc.

I too would love to see 11.5 come in Q1 this year and support Outlook 2010 and fix the majority of outstanding bugs. I've got quite a lot of sites using Scalix and migrating all of them to something else would be a huge task. And the thing that you cant go past is this.....

Ultimately its the Users who will drive the decision about which mail server will be necessary. Why? because everyone wants to use Outlook. No one has ever come up with another mail client to rival Outlook and do everything that it does. Consider probably 90% of the world uses Outlook for Email. And everyone want's their phone to sync with Outlook. And everyone wants to collaborate with other users in Outlook. Thus you need a mail server which supports Outlook and all these features. You cant get older versions of Outlook anymore, 2010 is the only thing you can get. That's just how it is. It does have some nice new features. So every new pc bought comes with Outlook 2010 and Scalix end users find they lose what functionality they had before and they start to complain and admins get stuck in the middle. Currently, it would appear that the only option is to go to another product. The silence is deafening from Xandros/Scalix.

If Scalix cannot find a way to at least support Outlook 2010 in the next couple of months (Outlook 2010 was rtm on 15th April 2010 and already many other mail collaboration servers support it) then they have really missed the boat and will likely see a large number of customers go elsewhere.

C'mon Xandros/Scalix, give the community some idea of what is happening......

[polleke]

prodding for over a year would be strange..

The roadmap as discussed 13 months ago was that in dec. 2010 11.4.6. was to be released. In the offices xandros was allready running on (a very very early version of) scalix 11.5 at that time.

So scalix 11.5 in some form of the other is somewhere.. There is something going on but operations go on (i can contact support, i can buy licences) but there is no communication.

so what is blocking that communication and at the same time holding back a release..

[mcbirne]

Are there any reasons why we should stay by Scalix and don't use Zarafa? What advantages have Scalix in comparison to Zarafa? The problem is, that there is no roadmap for Scalix.

[RSisco]

I've hung on to the bottom rung of the ladder as long as I can, but I just let go. I ordered Exchange yesterday. I've been as patient as I can but our business is starting to suffer. We need the features promised in 11.5, but I couldn't stall management any longer. I was afraid to switch to another non-Exchange product because we rely very heavily on Outlook and with the shortcomings of Scalix and others, not to mention the egg on my face from having suggested Scalix to begin with, I need a product that will just work.

So long Scalix...

Richard

[SidebandSamurai]

Well I will put my bid in, "next quarter". Then ask me in Q2 when will they will release 11.5 and I will say "Next quarter" also, because Next quarter has not arrived yet! it will never be next quarter. we will never arrive at next quarter, because next quarter is always in the future. As long as Xandros tells us "Next quarter" they are correct. Unfortunately they have been so quiet we don't know what to think. We have not seen any patches for the current version, nothing.Boy they are sure quick to send you a quote for a renewal though.

Sideband Samurai

[joako]

I've been gently prodding the sales department for the past 6 months I believe just to buy a new licence! "I need to ask my boss" and then I never hear anything back. Countless emails are sent, yet there is no response. Sometimes I call in and can talk to someone, who needs to refer my question to someone else.

If it wasn't for the occasional answer on the phone I would have thought the company is fully out of business

[florian]

Joako,

given your posting history - can you please indicate

- who you've talked to
- what number you've called
- who gave you that "I need to...." statement

when you tried to buy something?

FWIW, I'm quite happy for you to post this here, publicly.

Best,
Florian.

[polleke]

i know our customers have at least bought license renewals and so on this year


Florian, is there an Estemated Time of Arrival for more information than what we have now?

[SidebandSamurai]

On the 3rd of feb, Polleke said "Florian, is there an Estemated Time of Arrival for more information than what we have now?" and you will notice no response.

This is SO frustrating and I know she is watching this thread. I am not trying to beat up on Florian, she is great, but the non communication from the company seems to be the norm.

Sideband Samurai.

[florian]

First of all, Florian is (and always has been), a "he".

Second, while I continue to watch and also contribute to the Scalix Forums, most of you will actually know that I haven't been full-time with the company anymore for almost 1,5 years now. After 5 years with the product (and somewhat longer with the technology if you count my experience with OpenMail mostly in the 90s), I have decided to look for other challenges outside software space.

Given a product release schedule is something fairly formal to talk about, I don't feel entitled to make official public statements on it in this forum or elsewhere; those that have approached me directly through mail or so I've handed over to the respective account managers for such communication.

So I'm not totally sure if the conclusions drawn from my lack of response are correct.

Hope this finds all of you well,
Florian.

[billb3]

So I'm not totally sure if the conclusions drawn from my lack of response are correct.

Since nobody else from Scalix will respond, I think it is pretty safe to declare Scalix dead. Very sad.

[joako]

Joako,

given your posting history - can you please indicate

- who you've talked to
- what number you've called
- who gave you that "I need to...." statement

when you tried to buy something?

FWIW, I'm quite happy for you to post this here, publicly.

Best,
Florian.

I spoke with Steve Langer via telephone 2nd December 2010 during which we discussed my concerns with Scalix. He said he was going to talk to Elena Rivera and get back to me. However there's been no response from Scalix. I've followed up with Steve via email 2nd December, 3rd December, 6th December and 31st January 2011.