I am intrigued by the announcement by Novell of the Hula Project. I think it is great that they are open-sourcing all this great code, and they have someone enthusiastic to sheperd it through the community-building phase.

My real conundrum is this: What is Novell thinking? Why do they have 3 groupware solutions now? Is this the spray-and-pray marketing style? I would have thought they would be trying to combine the 2 they have, instead of adding a third option to the mix. What the hell am I talking about?, you ask. Let me ’splain it to you:

When you go to the main Novell web site, and you choose the menu at the top entitled Products, and then the subitem collaboration, you are then given 3 choices: GroupWise (the ‘flagship’ product in the category), NetMail (now Hula), and SUSE Linux Openexchange Server. So we now have 2 open source choices and one propietary choice, as opposed to vice-versa.

It seems the marketing engine for NetMail seemed to loose steam about mid-2003, and now the ‘only way out’ seems to be the open source tack. The buzz around Hula seems to be pretty strong, and I think because of this Novell will ultimately cannabalize their Groupwise product because of it. While I applaud the decision to open source, I really wish that Novell could understand that more products does not necessarily mean more opportunities, but definetly means more cost. I want Novell to ’stick around’, but this seems a lot like the marketing missteps of a Borland, than the ownership and vision of a leader.

Thoughts?

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Update: In working with Alex on trying to ’sell’ this cool product to him, I told him that I oould fax, and he asked a few questions like ‘Does it pull phone numbers from the address book?’. I told him that I would check, and indeed it does, it pulls EVERY phone number in from the address book, not just fax numbers! That would have been too easy for the user. Also, the Windows user experience is actually worse than the Mac, because you can send the fax at anytime, without being forced to put in a phone number, or worse, if you add the phone number, but do not click add to recepients, the fax is never sent either. Pure Genius!!!!

I just installed my 7310xi on the network (wired, not wireless), and everything seems to be working. I used it standalone as a fax/copier, and that was great. Then I moved on to installing the software on a PC, and that worked fine. I was able to print and fax, no problems.

I then moved onto installing it on my OS X laptop. I like that HP ‘gets’ Rendevous (mDNS), and the device immediately showed up in the list of available printers (everything should work this way, I am surprised that we are this far into the computer age and still not there yet). I then attempted to install the software on the provided CD. The CD had issues reading (it sounded like a DJ scratching a record, then stopping for a second, then doing it again after a spin-up.), but did install the software, at a snail’s pace. Next issue, the installer REQUIRES you to close ALL applications on the Mac. This is just insane! What kind of brain-dead nitwit decided that was a good idea? It even required me to close my Finder replacement Pathfinder. So, after EVERYTHING was closed, installation continued. It finally finished, and then stepped me through some very ugly dialogs that only an engineer would understand.

After all of this, I added the printer, and printed a test page. Great. Now I try to print it to the fax machine that was installed. The only problem there is that it keeps asking me for which modem I should use… I don’t need to use a modem, you piece of crap… Anyhoo, googled for answers, found almost nothing, although the standard ‘re-install the software’ theme keeps pooping up for any problems with HP and OS X related issues. I tried HP online chat support, and after fully describing the problem, they tell me that I can’t be helped, and I need to call the customer support line. WHAT??? How can a company with a decent product have such a terrible end-user experience, and then top it off with useless customer support? I wasn’t trying anything out of the ordinary. It says on the box the unit came in that Windows and Max are supported. I am calling customer support now, and I will update this post with my (mis)adventure.

Update: I call 1-800-HP-INVENT for tech support, go through an automated process that correctly identified my voice request for OfficeJet All-in-One support, then told me to say Macintosh if this is for Macintosh support. I then say ‘Macintosh’, and promptly get the phone answered by the Windows support team. I kindly tell her I am using a Macintosh, and she kindly transfers me, telling me I will hear a few beeps. Minor bump in the road, but so far so good. The phone is answered fairly promptly, and I start talking with Jodi(sp?). He begins asking me the standard info (serial number, OS and verison, machine make and model, network setup, etc. I then tell him that I cannot fax, because the OfficeJet is not in the list of choices for the modem to use. He does a quick search, finds nothing, but thinks that this machine may be one of ‘the ones’ that cannot fax over Wireless. What the? Jodi comes back, and walks me through the non-intuitve way you have to follow to send a fax. The solution is:

1. Attempt to print something.
2. DO NOT choose the Fax… button. That would be sane.
3. Choose the fax machine entry from the list of printers. This will change the Print button to a disabled ‘Send Fax Now’ button.
4. From the options drop down, currently at ‘Copies and Pages’, select ‘Fax Recipients’.
5. Enter the details and choose ‘Add to Recipients’. Voila! The Send Fax Now button is enabled.

I just love to live with counter-intuitive software. There are 2 reasons I switched to the Mac. First, Unix underneath, since I am a command line junkie. Second was my friends’ recommendations that everything ‘just works’ in an intuitive sort of way. HP does not understand this at all. They just figured the easiest way to port the Windows crap to the Mac platform, including all the memory hogging monitoring apps that are the HP signature.

The only upside is that Jodi, the last person I talked to, was intelligent, articulate, and patient. He hepled me through the issue, and even offered to call me back, and then actually did call me back! Thanks Jodi.

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