[Kolab-devel] something is not good about kolab

[Joon Radley]

Hi Gunnar,

> I would always second the idea that Kolab could improve in terms of
> marketing. The only groupware alternative worth mentioning alongside
> MS Exchange often seems to be Open-Xchange. Which is sad since its
> architecture is so inferior to the Kolab structures. But then again
> they have a shiny web frontend which is probably worth some points :)

No a truer word has been spoken.

Let me start of by saying that I think that the whole Kolab solution is the
best open-source groupware available, but it will struggle against other
open-source and commercial solution available in 2 key regards:

a) User interface. This is what the users see and it does not matter how
good the code is, if the user interface is not slick and shiny they will
think it is a poor quality product. As an example, many years ago I worked
on a project, in the one version we worked on the engine and made some very
nice improvements. From this we had almost no feedback. The next version we
created a skinned interface and nothing was done on the engine. We were
flooded with compliments on how we improved our software and how much faster
and better it was running. Users judge quality firstly with their eyes.

b) Installing. At the moment to install Kolab on a system you need to have
very sound Linux knowledge. Currently it is out of reach for people with
limited or no knowledge of Linux and both Linux and Kolab have a very high
learning requirement. (This is not a reflection on OpenPKG, which I have the
highest regards for. ) 

The installation issue is being addressed by a number of companies at the
moment and soon we will see a large increase in the user base of Kolab due
to this. I hope that these companies will be listed on the Kolab site to
show people without the necessary knowledge and skills to do the install
that an easy installer is available for them. 

As for the user interface I am not qualified to make any comments as I
prefer functionality over shiny buttons any day :)

Best Regards

Joon Radley
Radley Network Technologies CC
Cell: +27 (0)83 368 8557
Fax: +27 (0)12 998 4346
E-mail: joon at radleys.co.za
Web: www.toltec.co.za