[Kde-pim] *******, akonadi

[Georg C. F. Greve]

On Friday 13 April 2012 18.26:56 Lindsay Mathieson wrote:
> > Thunderbird doesn't do simple groupware functionality with anything
> > but Google services last time I checked.
> 
> All I and a *lot* of users want - and it works well in Thunderbird

FWIW you can hook Thunderbird up to Kolab Servers, as well, and it will do 
simple groupware functionality. We've even hired the author of SyncKolab to 
make that connector more reliable and faster. 

I still would not recommend it for heavy duty groupware users, the two 
applications are clearly in a different league, so comparing them always ends 
up comparing apples and tomatoes.


> Kolab is very much an edge case, its a trivial number of users compared to
> the number of people that want to sync their google mail, calendars and
> addressbooks.

>From your perspective, perhaps.

Of course Kolab does not have as many users as Google. Yet. ;)

But at least in my view KDE PIM is also about creating a full groupware 
application that can be put into the enterprise to replace Outlook, and thus 
truly enable desktop migration scenarios, at last. Those corporate users 
across groupware applications still far outnumber the users of Google. 


> > Really? My shiny Galaxy S2 doesn't even sync my address book at work,
> > which is using the _only_ groupware protocol Android supports, namely
> > Microsoft's activesync.
> 
> ? So you don't know how to set it up. Syncs fine with my work email. Syncs
> perfectly with all my google stuff, whcih is a groupware protocol last time
> I checked.

Yes, because Android is designed to be a lock-in path for your data to Google, 
it works very well. 

Just like Outlook works very well with Exchange and Sharepoint.

If you try to hook it up to something else, ActiveSync is typically your best 
shot, and the quality of the ActiveSync implementations on Android is 
fluctuating dramatically between versions.

And even when it works, which in our experience is most of the time, there is 
only ever one calendar and address book supported per account.

So it might be deliberately crippled, or just lack of attention and interest, 
but the overall quality is definitely not better than current KDE PIM.


> ? Again? Copes with my very large Gmail inbox just fine - which I know is a
> largely online experience.

Indeed, because virtually all things require the big server in the background, 
which is the kind of world that Google finds appealing, and thus has embedded 
into the design of Android.

Naturally that allows them to not only hold, mine and cross-correlate your 
data, it also allows them to get information from you on the go, starting from 
what you look at where or what you are buying, potentially ranging all the way 
to whether you were happy or stressed at the time, intoxicated, tired, bored, 
in the sun or rain, outside or inside, which music was playing in the 
background, who you were with, and so on and so forth.

Not everyone is comfortable with that level of personal surveillance.

And yes, in order to attract people to this walled garden, the experience is 
made very smooth, funded by billions of dollars of advertising revenue backed 
by the data mined from users.

I dare say that if we had just 1% of that, KDE PIM would already be much more 
advanced, rock solid, and ultra smooth. But then it isn't quite as profitable 
to give people control over their own data.


Anyhow: If Google + Thunderbird & Android are everything you want, which is 
what your statements seem to boil down to, then I suggest that you go and use 
them and leave the people who have somewhat bigger goals get on with their 
work.

Best regards,
Georg


-- 
Georg C. F. Greve
Chief Executive Officer

Kolab Systems AG
Zürich, Switzerland

e: greve at kolabsys.com
t: +41 78 904 43 33
w: http://kolabsys.com

pgp: 86574ACA Georg C. F. Greve
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