November 17th, 2005
Matthew White: Eating the opposition´s dogfood
Matthew White has recently been using Outlook/Exchange and has some observations about what differs from Lotus Notes…
over the years I have been spouting the line that Notes was a great mail client without ever having actually used Outlook / Exchange (my employers have always been rather enlightened). The idea was that I would use Outlook and get to know the opposition. Now let me say from the outset I have tried, I really have, to be as objective as possible. Obviously things were going to be a bit painful at first because I know Notes so well and there are all sorts of habits which I would need to break. But after 3 months of trying I have finally given up, Outlook is just not for me and I am genuinely confused as to why anyone would actively choose to use it over the Notes client.
Check out Matthew’s detailed comments on specific feature areas.
Other than the infamous F5/F9 refresh key sequence (something which MS reversed in Outlook 2003 anyway), it’s hard to find specifics for reasons users find Outlook so much better. Alan Lepofsky recently pointed me to this "Why will Lotus Notes not die?" rant, also doesn’t have many specifics. UI has always been a beauty-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder, I can remember these kinds of discussions going back to Windows 3.1 cc:Mail clients. Some things just never seem to change.
Originally by Ed Brill from Ed Brill on November 16, 2005, 12:20pm
