connector for Outlook 2010?

[chris78]

Hello.
Does anyone know when the connector is ready for oultook 2010?
The last connector runs verry buggy, I have installed 2003 and Config the scalix connector with scalix 2003, too. But without smartcache! Then I have update to 2010.It woks so far so good but Outlook or Office doesn`t have any Update from Microsoft. After the Update the connector hangs up the Outlook...

[virtuosity]

Hello

I have found the same thing where-by MS Outlook never starts successfully after installing the Outlook connector..

Thanks

[florian]

The current connector does not support or work with OL 2K10. OL2K10 support is part of a Scalix 11.5 offering, however at this point there is no confirmed release date for this version.

Florian.

[rsommer]

If Outlook 2012 will be in the market, we don't need Scalix 11.5 anymore. It now time for 11.5!

[SidebandSamurai]

Florian,

Outlook 2010 was released on "April 15, 2010" It is now over a year since it was released why the delay in supporting Office 2010. There are companies waiting for 11.4.6 to support 2010 so they can upgrade their technology.

What about those on 11.4.6 that may not upgrade right away to the 11.5.x release?
Are you going to leave those companies in the dust, as Scalix moves forward?

Release 11.5 of Scalix has been promised since 2009. By now your company should be able to announce a release date.

What about Beta?

There has been no announcement of a Beta. I hate playing the role of a mushroom (kept in the dark and fed s***). This does not look good for Scalix. It really looks like its abondonware.

Is there any news at all?

11.5 is not a big release, just an incremental release.

Why does it take almost 3 years to develop an incremental release and introduce new features, when this release should focus on compatibility and stability issues?

Most advances in technology during a software development cycle is usually released in next full revision release. For example significant changes to the interface or how the mail is stored and maintained would be placed in a 12.x release. It has been stated previously on many threads that 11.5 will feature new advances in technology.

What are these features?

There has been no announcement of these really cool features. After all this is why 11.5 has been held back.

We have gone almost (not quite though) 3 years with out a bug fix release or any other updates. Its hard to get in contact with your company. Most Voice mail boxes are full if you try to contact the company directly. Or if you leave a message the call is NEVER returned promptly.

I really hope we hear something real soon.

Thanks for reading.

Sideband Samurai

[florian]

Sideband,

while I can personally understand your frustration, first of all, please be aware that I am not full time with Scalix anymore, and I haven't been for more than 1,5 years. Therefore, it is not "my" company and I will not make any official statement on Xandros/Scalix behalf. I am still consulting with them for part of my time, so I am also bound by NDAs in terms of disclosing internal information.

My statement on Outlook 2010 functionality was simply based out of personal knowledge and experience, so that people do not really continue trying with the 11.4.6 connector, as there is no point.

When we did the planning on Scalix 11.5, the release contents were still my responsibility. For that reason, I think I am entitled to say that I disagree with your statement that 11.5 is not a big release. My thinking on release numbering - and that was still reflected in the 11.5 planning - is that major releases (e.g. 12.0) would change architecture, be somewhat harder to upgrade and require substantial planning for the upgrade. For Scalix, things that would bring it in that direction would be the replacement of the aged internal directory system with online, non-replicated use of an external LDAP directory, a re-architecture of the message store data file layout in order to better accomodate performance needs, and supporting Outlook without a connector using the OEP protocol, server-side. 11.5 is a minor release, yet it is a full release. This one was designed to bring architectural changes and new functionality in SWA including Tasks, significant changes in mail routing, archiving and message processing as well as modified platform support for servers, browsers and clients and finally a re-designed SAC architecture and API. I believe a fuller list has been published by me on the forum in the past. This is large, however, upgrading from 11.4.x to 11.5 would still be a simple in-place-upgrade with no major planning required, similar to what Scalix has delivered in the past, therefore making it a minor, not a major release from a numbering point of view. A lot of the work in preparing these items has been done already, and the task before release would be to finish that. OL2K10 support would be one of these items. When 11.5 is released, there will really not be a major reason to stick with 11.4.6. OL2K10 support for 11.4 will not see the light of the day, it would be against the development structure, we had decided - and I was the one pushing hard for this decision - to make a.b.X-releases "patch-releases" only, with bug fixes, and NO changes in fundamental platform support, so that customers have long-term investment protection and know what they are getting to.

Again, I cannot and will not comment on development status of the release, reasons for delays or new targetted release dates, please contact Xandros directly if you need an update on that.

Best,
Florian.

[SidebandSamurai]

Hi Florian,

Thank you very much for your response, and I am sorry to hear you are only in a consulting capacity. You are an asset the company is surely going to miss.

Since you know more about Scalix than I do, I will not argue how Xandros handles is versioning. From your point of view it does make sense. I do want to just say that Xandros has released major versions in the past that were in place upgrades also (IE from 10 to 11) that did not require extensive planning. But that has been the great thing with Scalix.

I just wish they would announce something. Anything at all.

Sideband Samurai

[florian]

Well, thanks for the statement on 10->11 - in my opinion that upgrade was a major PITA for many people due to the indexing, platform database buildup and other things required. Sure, tools were there, but from a timing/performance point of view it did require attention and, at least for larger sites, good planning.

What I said about a possible 11->12 structure would be in the same order of magnitude, IMHO. 11.0 -> 11.1 and similars were rather easy-easy compared to that.

I agree on the rest,
Florian.