For all of my fellow GroupWise lovers, here’s a little happy dance for you!

Happy (Dance) GroupWising!

Danita

My long-time friend, and also long-time friend of the GroupWise community, Richard Bliss, has written a book entitled Stealing the Show! Many of us have had the opportunity to hear Richard speak at conferences across the world.

In Richard’s new book, Stealing the Show, Richard shares unique marketing concepts that he has developed over the past 22 years of marketing for Hi-Tech Start-ups and Fortune 500 organizations. These BlissPoints have enabled him to see things differently, no matter the situation. They are examples where he has stolen the show (and for those of us often in the audience we know this is not an exaggeration) and literally moved the spotlight away from the traditional and focused it on the unusual or the unique. Each point in Richard’s book is a different area where he has found success by emotionally connecting to his audience and by doing things a little differently. Richard believes in going against traditional thinking and exploiting things that others have missed. So, here’s his challenge to you: “Look for the value and overcome the fears that keep you from stepping out on stage, whatever that stage may be. Go ahead! Steal the show.”

Stealing the Show is available as a DRM free ebook, as a Kindle e-book, and in paperback. But if you purchase the DRM free epub version from Caledonia, all of the proceeds go directly to Richard. There are, of course, various readers for epub versions, such as iBooks, Stanza, and even readers for Windows and Mac (just google epub reader for options) So what are you waiting for??

Thanks.

Danita

Today Novell announced the availability of GroupWise 2012 (although at the time of this post the info isn’t available on the Novell website yet). The new version boasts many new features, including enhanced WebAccess, web-based iPad support and integration with Novell Vibe(TM) and Skype.

Of note to current GroupWise customers is the discontinuation of GroupWise on NetWare.  So, for some of you, the upgrade to GroupWise 2012 is going to involve a bit more work than in the past.

Here at Caledonia we are ready to assist in your upgrade (and migration if you are currently running GroupWise agents on NetWare.  The Caledonia Upgrade Guide for GroupWise 2012 on Linux or Windows is for sites where GroupWise already resides on Windows or Linux, and is merely being “upgraded” on those servers. You can find more info about it here. This guide will help prepare you for your upgrade to GroupWise 2012 ships.

The guide for migrating from NetWare to Linux or Windows is for those of you who need hand at moving your current GroupWise system from NetWare.Info regarding this combined migration/upgrade guide can be found here.

Good luck with your upcoming upgrade/migration!

Danita

We’ve released our “beta” version of the Caledonia Upgrade Guide for GroupWise 2012 on Linux or Windows. This guide is for sites where GroupWise already resides on Windows or Linux, and is merely being “upgraded” on those servers. You can find more info about it here. This guide will help prepare you for your upgrade once GroupWise 2012 ships. We expect that we will be releasing the “final” version of the guide on GroupWise 2012 ship date (whenever Novell decides that might be!).

The guide for migrating from NetWare to Linux or Windows and then performing the upgrade to GroupWise 2012 is almost ready. We should have it completed by the end of this week. Info regarding this combined migration/upgrade guide can be found here.

Both of these guides are available for a 20% discount during Novell’s beta stage. Hopefully they will help you get ready for GroupWise 2012!

If you have already purchased the guide for upgrading directly on Linux or Windows you can do to your downloads page in our store and download the Linux/Windows guide.  Once the guide for migrating/upgrading from NetWare is finished, we will send out an additional notice.

Danita

Last week, Zimbra sent out an email trying to entice GroupWise customers to move to Zimbra using information that a company the size of VMWare Zimbra should KNOW was incorrect (I’m sure they have a few fact checkers in their organization). Here’s a copy of last week’s email:

From: VMware Zimbra Team
Subject: Live Webinar – VMware Zimbra vs. Novell GroupWise
Date: October 12, 2011 9:47:00 AM MDT
To: <recipient>
Reply-To: noreply@info.zimbra.com

VMware Zimbra vs. Novell GroupWise
Live Webinar

VMware Zimbra vs. Novell GroupWise Live Webinar

With Novell’s acquisition by Attachment and rumors of demise surrounding GroupWise, organizations have been forced to seek viable alternatives. In this webinar you will see why so many organizations have happily and successfully migrated from GroupWise to VMware Zimbra.

According to Novell’s website, general support for GroupWise 8.0 will end in five weeks (November 17, 2011) without a new release. Have you considered your future plans for a cutting-edge email/collaboration platform?

Invest 45 minutes and learn how next-generation products like VMware Zimbra meets the needs of a demanding IT environment. See why Zimbra is used by over 70 million users, including Texas A&M, H&R Block, Bechtel, City of Ventura and Mountain Medical.

Topics covered will include:
Feature & benefits of VMware Zimbra
Customer references
Zimbra Demo and FAQ

	SpeakersJing To, Sr. Manager, Product Marketing, VMware

“Novell’s website” as they listed, was this page - http://wiki.novell.com/index.php/GroupWise_Release_History – feel free to browse the history to see what changes were made later that day.

A number of people, including our buddy Joe Doupnik, alerted me to this email very soon after it was sent out.  I worked with some Novell employees including Kim Groneman and Pam Robello to correct this page, and believe it was corrected within an hour of the original email.

It’s interesting to note that this is a WIKI page, created by a GroupWise enthusiast, not Novell, and indeed, when the page was created in 2009, it was expected that 2011 would be the end of GroupWise 8 support.  However, Novell does keep it’s own page at http://support.novell.com/lifecycle which is the official Novell statement of support.

Obviously, Zimbra noticed that this information had been corrected, because TODAY another email was issued as follows:

From: VMware Zimbra Team
Subject: LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER – VMware Zimbra vs. Novell GroupWise LIVE WEBINAR
To:  <recipient>
Reply-To: noreply@info.zimbra.com

VMware Zimbra vs. Novell GroupWise
LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER FOR LIVE WEBINAR

VMware Zimbra vs. Novell GroupWise Live Webinar

With Novell’s acquisition by Attachmate and rumors of demise surrounding GroupWise, organizations have been forced to seek viable alternatives. In this webinar you will see why so many organizations have happily and successfully migrated from GroupWise to VMware Zimbra.

Novell’s website recently showed that general support for GroupWise 8.0 will end in five weeks (November 17, 2011) without a new release on the horizon. Have you considered your future plans for a cutting-edge email/collaboration platform?

Invest 45 minutes and learn how next-generation products like VMware Zimbra meets the needs of a demanding IT environment. See why Zimbra is used by over 70 million users, including Texas A&M, H&R Block, Bechtel, City of Ventura and Mountain Medical.

Topics covered will include:
Feature & benefits of VMware Zimbra
Customer references
Zimbra Demo and FAQ

	Speakers Jing To, Sr. Manager, Product Marketing, VMware

Notice that this time their “Novell’s website” link points to a jpg of the wiki page as it existed on the 12th of October, without the disclaimer link at the bottom which states that the CoolSolutions Wiki is not official Novell information.  This very act is proof positive that Zimbra knows full well that their statements are not only misleading, but the information contained therein is clearly untrue.

Anyone who was at BrainShare last week has no question as to The Attachmate Group’s commitment to not only GroupWise, but all of Novell’s product line.  And it was very clear that Attachmate especially sees GroupWise as a vital and vibrant part of the Novell product line.  GroupWise 2012 is in public beta right now (beta.novell.com) and should ship by the end of the year.  GroupWise “Cardiff” is due out sometime next year, with GroupWise “Windermere” due in 2013.

If this makes you as angry as it does me, contact anyone you know at VMWare to complain (press@zimbra.com, or even Mr. To, who is the speaker for this webinar – VMWare addresses are FLast@VMWare.com by the way – hmmmm).

If you wish to complain to VMWare Zimbra, you can cc Kim Groneman (kgroneman at novell.com of course) so that your comments can also be passed on to the proper people at Novell.  Remember that VMWare is a “Novell Partner” and as such should be expected to at LEAST use verifiable and truthful statements in trying to lure customers away from Novell.

Of course, if you look at http://pm.zimbra.com/#Releases you’ll note that they have no upcoming releases announced.  Perhaps their future is shaky!  Just sayin’!

Happy GroupWising

Danita

It was wonderful to see many of you at BrainShare in Salt Lake City last week.  I truly feel energized coming out of the conference.  There are many exciting things in the works from Novell, and of course GroupWise 2012 is one of those!  In fact, if you haven’t had a chance to check it out, GroupWise 2012 is now in public beta and you can download it at http://beta.novell.com.

Here at Caledonia we’ve been busy working on the Caledonia Upgrade Guide for  GroupWise 2012.  Many of you asked if we would be offering our usual pre-purchase discounts on our guide, and of course, we’re happy to oblige.  Details to follow.

First, I’d like to explain some differences to the Guide for this version of GroupWise.  As you are probably aware, GroupWise 2012 has no support for NetWare Agents.  Thus, it will be time for NetWare sites to move GroupWise to either Linux or Windows.  Typically, our upgrade guides assume an in-place upgrade from one version to another, with no hardware migrations.  Of course, if you are on NetWare now, this will not be possible.  While we have an entire guide dedicated to “Moving GroupWise“, if you haven’t already purchased that book, we do not want you to have to go out and buy two guides just to get your GroupWise 2012 system up and running.  So, if you will be migrating and upgrading your system from NetWare to Linux or Windows, you should purchase the GroupWise 2012 NetWare Upgrade Guide, which will give you step-by-step instructions for moving your data from NetWare and then completing your upgrade.  On the other hand, if you are already running GroupWise on Linux or Windows, you can purchase the GroupWise 2012 Linux/Windows Upgrade Guide.  A few of our customers have said “hey, I want them both!”  So we have also created a discounted bundle of both of the 2012 Upgrade Guides.  All of the guides will be available at 20% off their list price from now until November 15, 2011.

If you purchase the guides now, you will receive instructions to download them on or about November 15, 2011.  All you will need to do is log into your account at http://www.caledonia.net/download.html and download the completed guides.

All of our products are available at our online store at https://postie.caledonia.net/store

Thanks for all of your support!

Danita

PS – although we mostly know each other through technical venues, all is not technical in our lives, and a number of you asked about my transformation when you saw me at BrainShare.  I also have a monthly “Healthy Habits” newsletter that many of you have asked to receive.  If you wish to receive my monthly newsleter called “Healthy Habits”, just sign up here!  You can unsubscribe at any time, and of course, unsubscribing from any of my newsletters never hurts my feelings!  I value your time and do not wish to overburden you with too much information!

I don’t use my business blog that often to deal with personal matters, but somehow today, it seems a fitting time to do so. Yesterday, a man died. A man who touched many of our lives through technology. A man who, regardless of your feelings about the technology he spawned, has undeniably changed the technological world that we live in.   But for all of his technical, business and marketing genius, Steve Jobs was also a man who inspired many on a personal level.  My guess is that today many people will watch (or re-watch) Steve Jobs’ commencement address in 2005 at Stanford University.  And many of us will find ways to relate some of the very important and poignant things he told that year’s graduates back to our own lives.  I think most important of all of the things that can happen in the wake of yet another untimely death is that we look at our own lives, the people who are important to us, the choices we are making today, and let a public stranger remind us of what we have, what we yearn for, and who we are.

Most of us have other people in our lives who have touched us in more important ways than Steve Jobs has.  We have parents, siblings, spouses, life partners, extended family, mentors, friends, competitors, rivals, enemies, and other people both loved and reviled who have made huge impacts on our lives, shaping who we are, and what we do.  For me, one of those people was my father, a man who also died too young at the age of 58.  My father doesn’t have a YouTube video that everyone can go watch to remember his wisdom any time they choose.  He did make an audio tape for his family before he died though.  One that actually touches on all of the topics that Steve Jobs talked about in his commencement address, but is infinitely more difficult for me to listen to without falling apart, than Steve Jobs’ speech.  So instead, last night and today I let Mr. Jobs’ words touch my heart, and remind me of someone else I have lost who was inspiring and soulful.  My father would truly have appreciated the message of connecting the dots, love and loss, and ultimately the liberation of our spirits and thoughts when we accept that death is a part of life, and live our lives with the knowledge that today could be our last.

So this morning, as I drove my 14 year old son to the school bus, I had him him read the transcript of the Stanford University commencement address in Safari on my iPhone.  At the same time, the plaintive sounds of his favorite new age music that had been downloaded from iTunes and synchronized from his Mac  were now playing in the car on his iPad.   I was struck not only by how truly Steve Jobs had changed our technological lives, but also how much his message reminds us to appreciate the people around us, remember the loved ones we’ve lost, and stay hungry and foolish until we all reach our shared destination.

Danita

We’ve recently updated our “Mobility Server” guide to cover version 1.2 of the server. If you have purchased this book from us, you can log into your account at http://www.caledonia.net/download.html and download the new version (your email address is your login name). If you haven’t purchased the guide yet, you can find more info at http://www.caledonia.net/gw-mobility.html – we’ve not only updated the guide for version 1.2, but added a few sections, including one on updating the server from one version to another.

Danita

I am frequently asked by users of other email clients (gasp) why GroupWise has no built-in filter to show all of the unread messages in a particular folder. I can only answer “I don’t know why”. But then I show them a very quick way to create such a filter for use in any folder they choose. Please note, this is not the same as creating a search folder to find unread items – it’s actually a much quicker way to find items in the “current” folder that are unread.

Before I created my “Unread” filter, I frequently looked at that unread message counter next to my mailbox and I would sigh.  I knew that, for example, there were 20 unread messages, but I could only easily see maybe five or six of them in my current message list screen.  So, to find them all quickly, I did the following.

• First click on the dropdown arrow next to “find” beside the filter input box. Figure 1 shows this arrow behind the resultant dropdown list.

Figure 1: The filter dropdown box

• Next click on “In Mailbox Folder” at the top.
• When you see the “Find in Mailbox Folder” window, click on Advanced Find.
• Change the settings to show Item Status Does Not Contain Read, as in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The Advanced Find Dialog

• Click OK.  You should now see Figure 3 below.

Figure 3: The Resultant Search Formula

• Click Save and give this filter a name.  ”Unread” might be useful!
• Now when you click on the Quick Find dropdown arrow, you will have your filter available near the bottom of the dialog.

Figure 4: Your Saved Filter

This filter can be used on any folder you choose.  It is much faster than using a find, or even a Find Results Folder.  Of course, a search is more useful if you wish to see all unread messages in all folders, but this filter allows for quick access to unread items in the current folder where you are reading.

As most of you know, the purchase of Novell by Attachmate was finalized this week. This of course has prompted a lot of speculation about how this affects ongoing development of things like GroupWise. In an interview with Attachmate’s CEO Jeff Hawn, some very interesting comments were made (read the entire article here).

For legacy Novell Netware customers, Attachmate expects to restore commitments to support Netware versions in which support was due to be discontinued. “Our philosophy is not to force customers to move from anything,” Hawn said. Netware, he said, has “still got a very large, a very loyal installed base and we intend to continue to focus on meeting their needs whether that’s in additional offerings on the road map, additional support offerings and the like.”

“We are not discontinuing any products,” Hawn said. Existing Novell road maps remain intact, he said.

I for one see this as very positive news.  Not so  much that I believe people should stubbornly stick to NetWare when other options might be better, but because I do believe that the attitude of doing “what’s best for the customer” is a return to some “legacy” values of the Novell we all fell in love with 20+ years ago.

And of course, the news that no products are being discontinued is good news.  We all know that GroupWise Ascot will be going into private beta this summer, and the news that Attachmate intends to continue to support and enhance the Novell/Suse line is very encouraging.

This coupled with the return of Novell’s headquarters to Provo makes me smile!

Happy GroupWising

Danita