Blog Entry

Submitted by redds on 25 January 2009 - 6:16am.

Will this new solution include OTA and push technology or will it have to be tethered to a PC/laptop?

Submitted by redds on 26 January 2009 - 6:40am.

Does this mean that this new solution will only run on Windows servers? How will OTA syncing work?

Submitted by WGamradt on 26 January 2009 - 11:27am.

"Novell will support GroupWise Mobile Server through
October 31st, 2009,"

Tell me that is a typo. Novell has stated that they and Nokia would support Mobile Server for the next two years. Now all of a sudden support is ending in a few months and the product to replace it has not even hit beta?! Is that right?!

It is stuff like this that continues to make Novell solutions increasingly difficult to recommend and sell.

Great.

Submitted by FlyingGuy on 26 January 2009 - 3:07pm.

Alex, this is getting to be a habit with you and one that I am really begging to dislike. This is also leading to me and a few others I would imagine to start to wonder if we should continue to trust you.

So how about some details like:

1. Will this be a Linux Implementation?
2. Will it require a Windows Server and all the expense and hassle that comes with that?
3. This year, uhmmmm care to be just a BIT more specific?

While we were all *** begging *** for info and making lots of suggestions, had you already made this decision to lock your GW user base into a MicroSoft product?

You need to stop playing coy with us and either be informative so we can make plans or you can just keep losing more and more customers.

We have to sell this! When a customer hears, "Well the Novell mobility solution is really a Microsoft product how much longer before they say to themselves, "Hell I should just shift to Microsoft because it is their software and they can integrate their software together better then these guys can."

And what about licensing cost, what about IP issues, what about a LOT of things like is this going to ge yet another JAVA/TOMCAT/Apache/ god alone knows what kind of fresh H*&L mashup that is going to yet again be dependent on 5 or more layers of software? Is it going to crammed full or Perl and python scripts that at best unfathomable except ( and possibly not even to them when it's finished ) to those who wrote it?

When it breaks are we going to be faced yet again with error messages that spew forth 50 lines of java classes that lead you to absolutely nowhere like the infamous "MainHallway" errors? Or will it be some Microsoft error codes that MS, even if you pay them, wont deal with?

Submitted by redds on 26 January 2009 - 8:37pm.

Why another Microsoft solution? Isn't Novell a Linux company. Again start acting like it. As a customer I have moved to OES2 Linux and getting rid of many of my Windows boxes. I don't want to add another one.

Submitted by tmstone835 on 27 January 2009 - 10:24am.

I don't think that you have much choice other than to have an ActiveSync enabled GroupWise. All of the smart phone vendors are supporting it and it is too big of a market to ignore. If GroupWise wants to be a player, it has to come out as soon as possible. I would like to see early-summer as the target rather than the end of the year.

I believe the APIs are published for ActiveSync so move forward now instead of later.

It has to be a Linux solution and not reliant on a Windows server. I agree with the previous comment about that. We are trying to eliminate Windows servers rather than adding them.

Submitted by Magic31 on 28 January 2009 - 1:26am.

WGamradt : Not seeing where you are reading GMS support will be dropped this year? I'm reading they are pushing to get out the new solution for Groupwise Mobility to ease the current uncertainty for a Groupwise solution.
They way I interpret the news (as also other postings/blogs), is that the 3.0 GMS series will be maintained but not developed any further. In that sense the support can still be given while a new product is pushed out.

I'd rather have seen Novell buying the GMS solution from Nokia.. but then Novell would also have to keep developing all the clients and other extra aspects. Following where others seem to be headed (even Nokia) might be wiser in this case.

I do share the concerns others here have posted :
+1 to maintain a Linux version of your solution!! Many customers are VERY happy with the fact GMS is running on their SLES boxes. I do hope (strongly) the next solution will offer the same platform choices.

Keeping an eye on your developments!

Cheers,
Wj

Submitted by DaveHowe on 28 January 2009 - 4:49am.

ActiveSync is the defacto standard for phone syncing - not supporting it will hurt more, and lead to customers going to microsoft to give them systems with the functionality they need.

It would be nice if there was a rfc standard for this which all phones supported, but we have to live in the real world here.

Submitted by gurneetech on 29 January 2009 - 11:01am.

I realize its still early in the process and details that can be released publicly are sparse, but I have to thank you for the news. Once released, no longer will we have to worry about 3rd party support for a sync client. While Activesync isn't perfect, it does do a good job.

This is exactly the kind of integration that I've been hoping to see come from Novell. If the MS agreement had a hand in it, then excellent. At the end of the day this will benefit everyone.

Submitted by stideswe on 5 February 2009 - 2:34am.

Much as I hate MS, ActiveSync is widely adopted and works very well (even behind a reverse proxy for instance). As such, Novell making a native ActiveSync gateway for GroupWise is bloody excellent news. Thank God you finally decided!

I concur with foccer who requested SyncML support: I'd imagine ActiveSync and SyncML are not hugely different and providing protocol level support for both would make good business sense for Novell and help to support a truly open standard.

You might consider MS to be buddies now but we all know what a total bunch of *****s (think of your own expletive here) they are and you shouldn't just fall in line to support their protocol without supporting the open standard which they don't own and which is also widely used. Try not to kick Open Source/Open Standards in the teeth as you are reliant to some extent on differentiating yourself from the Redmond beast. When it has ceased to be convenient for MS to be mates with you they will try and screw you over without even blinking an eye - and that day will come pretty soon.

Isn't is odd how people are so focussed (including me) on supporting the bloody iPhone. Now that people have them they realise how power hungry and overrated they are and the whole furore about how crap GroupWise is because it doesn't support iPhone has died down. In the long term though Novell cannot ignore this sort of thing because eventually the iPhone and others will improve and actually be worth owning. Also Novell should not ignore RIM/BES whose product is way superior to any other option and who did the right thing by providing support for GroupWise way back. If we didn't buy a BES server some years ago we would have ditched GroupWise a long way back. We only still use GroupWise now because BES was there and ready to use and works so bloody well.

Simon

Submitted by AngeloP on 18 February 2009 - 3:15pm.

Will the GroupWise 8 ActiveSync protocol work on NetWare OES1 servers also? Or do we have to upgrade servers and migrate them over to Linux OES2?

Also, will the ActiveSync protocol be coming out at the same time for all the platforms? If not, which one is going to get it first?

Thanks for helping me out with this needed information.

Submitted by iphonebecky on 1 April 2009 - 5:57am.

Aevans,

Do you have a better sense of timing for the release for ActiveSync? I need to sync my iphone with Groupwise. I'm trying to decide if I can wait for your release, or if I should pay for a stopgap until it is released.

Thanks!