Switching to Mac from Outlook Environment

[patrick0brien]

-All

I'm asking on behalf of a business user considering moving to a MacBook Pro.

I see two choices. 1. Parallels, XP, and Outlook for a seamless transition.

Or (and here is the question) using entourage natively on OS X.

Anyone do this? Move from Outlook on Windows to Entourage on Mac using all three functions Calendar, Contacts, and Mail?

What has your experience been?

 

[rogersmj]

I'm in the same boat, as we have Exchange at work. I have Entourage successfully configured on my iMac at home, but it's kind of slow and takes up tons of RAM when open (Rosetta). I also configured Outlook inside a Parallels VM with 256MB of RAM and it seems to run quite well. I actually don't run either that much though, because I still have Dell laptop and I use that to access my email. I'm looking forward to Office 2007 for Mac next year.

 

[patrick0brien]

I'm in the same boat, as we have Exchange at work. I have Entourage successfully configured on my iMac at home, but it's kind of slow and takes up tons of RAM when open (Rosetta). I also configured Outlook inside a Parallels VM with 256MB of RAM and it seems to run quite well. I actually don't run either that much though, because I still have Dell laptop and I use that to access my email. I'm looking forward to Office 2007 for Mac next year.

-mrogers

Which do you prefer?

 

[Scottyk9]

you need at least exchange 2000 for entourage to work

my perspective is different, as I much prefer to use iCal & Mail. However, having my assistant make changes to the outlook exchange calendar is necessary.

I have entourage set to sync my calendar with exchange, which then syncs it to iCal. Email can be accessed through either entourage or directly from mail.

I don't used the advanced calendar features, but I understand that entourage does not fully support all the advanced features.

Here is a link for more info regardin exchange and entourage:
http://www.entourage.mvps.org/exchange/

 

[patrick0brien]

-Scottyk9, mrogers

Thank you both for your help here.

I think we're dealing with Exchange 2003. But I don't believe the user in question uses anything more funky than the base Calendar, Contact, and Email functions.

I'll see if I can get the user to come here and speak for himself.

 

[SMM]

If you do not need an answer for a week, I can shed some light on the options. I do have Entourage sourced by Exchange, but have not tested the calendar, or contacts. Right now, I am more focused in getting Mac Mail and Exchange to work effectively.

For my company, I do not want to be buying Office:Mac for all of my users. I have now moved 20 users to Mac's. When the need to run the MS legacy applications, or Office, they are doing so through Citrix Metaframe. I still have to license them for Office however. I am banking on iWork to greatly reduce the need for Office. The key is to get Mail to work with Exchange.

Right now, I am working on getting OSX to work with Active Directory. When this is done (a few days), then I will tackle the Mail issue. If you are interested in the results, and methods, send me a private message and I will email you with the info.

 

[rogersmj]

-mrogers

Which do you prefer?

patrick, I think I would prefer using Entourage to using Outlook through Parallels. If I had 2GB of RAM in my machine, which I will shortly and which I would recommend to your user, then it wouldn't be an issue. My mail, calendar, contacts, notes, todo, everything works fine on my Entourage at home and Outlook at work. It's just a touch sluggish because of the Rosetta emulation, but the fact that you don't have to boot up a virtual machine, and the fact that it's integrated with the OS you're currently using (clicking on links in Outlook via Parallels and having them open in my VM's browser got old) outweighs the slight performance hit. Plus, in one way or another this problem will be resolved next year. Either iWork '07 will include Exchange connectivity, or worst case Office 2007 (which will be UB) will be released late Q2/early Q3 next year.

 

[patrick0brien]

Hey, thanks for the input guys.

Here is the recommendation I will make:

Get the MBP, Parallels, and WinXP. Also Office 2004 - being ready to upgrade to 2007.

Install and use Outlook on the XP VM for minimal learning curve. Begin to dabble in entourage as a 'toe in the water'. Eventually at his choice, commit to one or the other depending on functionality and comfort level.

 

[balamw]

Get the MBP, Parallels, and WinXP. Also Office 2004 - being ready to upgrade to 2007.

Don't forget the RAM! Parallels and Office:Mac 2004 will thank you for it.

B

 

[patrick0brien]

Don't forget the RAM! Parallels and Office:Mac 2004 will thank you for it.

B

-balamw

Not to worry MBPC2D ships with 2gb.

Hey, that rhymed.

 

[lieb39]

I use Outlook as my main PIM (Except Email funny enough - I don't care for it, I have web based and my Blackberry, I don't need a email client)

Entourage vs. Exchange in Parallels.. Parallels wins by a huge margin. Another thing - it syncs (over USB) with the Blackberry, as opposed to the horrible Pocketmac program for the Mac OS X extension.

It is one of the main reasons that I brought Parallels today.. for exchange.

Cheers!

-lieb39

 

[patrick0brien]

-lieb39

Hmm, good point.

I think there is indeed an Blackberry in the mix here come to think of it.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Tried entourage when I merged. (I didn't switch.) Hated it. It has none of the features of Outlook and there isn't any one app that has all the PIM features of Outlook. I like Outlook. Hopefully when Crossover ships Outlook 2003 will work.

 

[nplima]

suggestion:
1) get a IMAP mail account (example: @aol.com)
2) Use a Windows box to log on to your Exchange account, create an unconditional forward rule for all email to have it sent to your IMAP box
3) rejoyce in your newly acquired Outlook-free existence