Exchange 2010 beta: Screenshots

It's one of the most despised pieces of software (in this writer's experience at least), but chances are that your corporate emails are controlled by a Microsoft Exchange server. ZDNet.com.au took a beta of Microsoft's upcoming Exchange 2010 for a spin.

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We installed the beta on Windows Server 2008. The set-up splash screen shows the two big dependencies of Exchange 2010; the .NET Framework 3.5 and PowerShell v2. If you do not have them installed, the links will take you off to the Microsoft site to install each of them — the process of which is fairly painless.

(Credit: Chris Duckett/ZDNet.com.au)

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What do you mean despised? Anonymous -- 17/04/09

Exchange is awesome. Watch out Google.

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Why is it despised? BChau -- 17/04/09

MS Exchange is serving me well. Email and Outlook calendar integration works seamlessly, both for desktop and mobile phones. No wonder it is licensed to many companies like Apple.

Is it fashionable to bash everything MS these days that we can no longer have independent thoughts.

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Exchange screenshots Anonymous -- 18/04/09

I'm always amused when people claim they've taken screenshots of a server application.

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Pathetic ZDNet ITGuru -- 19/04/09

Wow, couldn't believe the totally juvenile and stupid intro paragraph of this story.

'..most despised pieces of software..'

And ZDNet wonders why it is becoming a totally useless and irrelevant website....

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Chris Duckett - Most despised blogger Anonymous -- 20/04/09

Exchange despised by whom and where? Exchange is one of the best communication platforms available just because you can't use it doesn't mean you have to blame it for your own faults.

What a joke

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Despised?!?! Anonymous -- 20/04/09

Why despised?? as you can see here from the comments from actual IT Professionals, Exchange is the most scalable email / communications platform available.

Just because you can't install it the first time is not a reason to bag another MS product...

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Despised? Anonymous -- 20/04/09

By who? According to...Oh, the author...

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In this writer's experience at least... Chris Duckett -- 20/04/09

I'd like to point out that if you're happily administering Exchange and it's working for you then power to you.

In my personal experience, however, there are a lot of people out there, especially users, that don't like Exchange one bit. The features that it has cannot outweigh the slowness and the less-than-fun experience that occurs on non-Windows desktops in an Exchange environment. And just to show that I'm not alone in this view, our sister publication ZDNet.co.uk listed Exchange on its list of annoying software (http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000001048,39419834-10,00.htm).

That's not to say that there is an emailing solution that people love. Even if, as some respondents have said, Exchange is the best of a bad bunch, it doesn't mean we have to like it.

Chris Duckett
ZDNet.com.au

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Not despised a smart product Linus -- 20/04/09 (in reply to #320130657)

Why dont you just admit your a Linux fanboy? Exchange is a hugely complex, feature rich, scalable product and this new version makes it even more cost effective.
To say you know some people that dont like it is a bit rich when the sales growth numbers for this product show otherwise. Your article would have been much better if you had discussed some of the new features. Now that would have made it interesting. I cant believe you would stoop so low for a few impressions.

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Exchange is The One Mel Sommersberg -- 20/04/09

Exchange walks all over its most popular rival, Sendmail, even in the security department. Sendmail is the most insecure piece of software ever distributed, even more-so than Firefox. If I were to list all sendmail exploits and holes I'd be banned for flooding the forums.

Think I am biased? I'm not, I use MailEnable on my mail server.

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What happens to Exvhange 2007? Sammy Lamba -- 21/04/09

I work in an IT datacenter where big clients still run Exchange 2003. Very few run 2007.

Exchange 2007 hasn't even fully matured yet?
I bet 90% of people here still would still be using Exchange 2003 ..

Exchange 2010 is released now to rip off 2007 ..

Excellent!

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Despised?!?! Seriously get a clue on current business needs. Anonymous -- 22/04/09

I have worked with Exchange since early years and with the advancements since Exchange 2000, Microsoft have definately got their head screwed on right when it comes to messaging.

Pricing has become more affordable than most of the leading players in the messaging arena and with its rich features and connectivity to most platforms and clients (note you will have to look at the microsoft download section for additional connectivity to clients), it makes this software more desirable to IT Professionals to invest in.

However, despite these advancements and features like collaboration, Lotus Domino/Notes is still technically more advanced and its advancements ahead leave Exchange dead in the water. The pricing, the marketing and ability to incorporate into ERP systems easily are the only downfall of Lotus Domino.

Although most ERP software will be able to connect to any email server, most favor Exchange to fully connect all functionality too like collaboration, email, tasking and calendaring.

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End-user experience Anonymous -- 24/04/09 (in reply to #320131045)

The Lotus Notes clients sucks as an e-mail (calendaring) client, and yes, I'm using the latest version with the latest version of Domino (this place just upgraded).

Outlook is not perfect, but it's a marvellous wonderfully responsive product compared to Notes.

Cached Exchange mode has helped a lot, and Notes' apparently single-threaded UI is still there - it really kills productivity. Click on any fu@k!ng thing in Notes and wait... and wait... It's unbearable.
Outlook is very responsive (as long as you don't have a badly designed add-in, such as an archiving product - in which case it's what's slowing down Outlook), even using it across the Internet (Outlook Anywhere).

Exchange Server 2003 (v6.5) is a rock-solid product. Unfortunately Exchange 2007 (v8) is a bit of a dog - it can be unstable (using standard corporate anti-virus products), the admin has become more difficult, PowerShell is irritating and somewhat inconsistent, and you shouldn't have to use the cmdlets as much as you do. It's difficult to understand why some of the changes to scripting admin tasks have been made (it's only made it worse).
It seems, like Windows Vista, Exchange 2007 wasn't quite ready for prime-time.
I hope that Exchange 2010 (v8.5?) fixes the issues with 2007 and is rock-solid like 2003 - it needs to be to encourage customers to upgrade from 2003.
Despite the critisms of Exchange 2007, it did add some nice improvements like better TLS, mobile-device support, and the big one: Unified messaging (here I suspect is why other issues weren't addressed before release).

Exchange is number 1 for a very good reason, it's an excellent product.

Now go back in your hole, Linux clown.

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