I've been pondering this subject for some time now, and I need to get it out. I hope you read this post, in the spirit of which it is written: With affection

See, I like OO.org. I think it's a brilliant solution, and I/it could easily persuade people to save a lot of money on licenses. But you know... at least where I come from, the MAIN program that gets used all the time, is Outlook.
And so I don't make the switch. And so none of my friends or family make the switch. I'm guessing you really don't make the switch if Outlook is in play at all. Why would you not install the other applications in the MS Office suite, when they're readily available to you, if you have Outlook ? (I know that isn't a 100% true, some get them with e.g. their smartphones and pda's, and it's an Outlook license only).
I think it's a crying shame that you don't have a PIM solution !
And... don't give me the standard response here (at least it's standard from what I read elsewhere): You want to focus on the core functionality of an office suite.
What is that ? Is that some kind of excuse ?
You know what ? Everyone else have that explanation too. All the office suites "just want to focus on the core functionality". Since a lot of them are based on OO.org (e.g. StarOffice and Symphony), they kinda just bloat the range. Basically you're covering what 90% of Office applications users use anyway, it's very few people that are really advanced in their use of these applications. There are others (KOffice, and probably others), just not OO.org based, but they do the same thing.
And so we're left with a situation where none of them really stands out. Pick this, pick that, it doesn't really matter much. They all focus on the same thing. The approach may differ a little, but that's it.
The only time I go fully OO.org is on my Ubuntu, since it makes sense there. I have Evolution on Ubuntu. I don't have that on Windows, and I don't want it on Windows. It's so low priority that I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot burning radioactive pole. On Linux it's kinda the only solution, so it's sensible (and necessary) to go with it on that platform.
You know what I wish for ? I wish you guys would get moving on that. Make a buttkicking PIM application. Make sure it can synchronize via some standard interface, with mobile devices (never forget sync, it's absolutely necessary in todays environment).
Cause really. No serious PIM users would go Thunderbird + plugin. It's just not up to par. And that brings me to another subject... the answer has often been "But we have thunderbird ?". Yeah, that's fine. Thunderbird is a mail app. It's not a PIM app. Probably never will be, I don't know. But it isn't now. And on that thing it's basically same same as with the office suites: There are like a thousand mail apps out there, and they all do the exact same thing. Only the range of functionality, and the approach, differ. They still only do mail though.
I really really really seriously would love it if you could ever consider putting some work into a PIM application that was 100% integrated with the rest of the OO.org suite. Expose some SyncML interface or something, so we can sync too.
Seriously, I truly believe that this is the only thing stopping OO.org from being truly mainstream, wide spread and extremely popular (as opposed to "just popular, but not necessarily gaining widespread acceptance over already available competing products). You have a brilliant product that works for 90% of all Office users. Why not go that extra mile and make sure there are no excuses ? No reasons NOT to switch ?
Like I said earlier... I think it's a bleeding shame. Really. And it's annoying to see something good, being held back, when it could literally eat its way into the market, in a flash.
Think about it. An opensource PIM, with sync interface, and a plugin interface (so someone could create e.g. an Exchange plugin/interface, so it could gain corporate acceptance), that was fully integrated with OO.org.
OO.org would literally blow up. I'm sure of it.
Please consider doing such a thing. It's needed, and it's necessary.
Thanks for reading
Jacob