# Goodbye BES **URL:** \ **Category:** Chatting over the Back Fence\ **Created:** [July 16, 2013, 5:24am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163 "2013-07-16T05:24:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![System1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@System1](https://forums.suse.com/u/System1)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 5:24am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/1 "2013-07-16T05:24:48Z")
Yay! Last user migrated off the abomination that was BES. It’s shutdown and disabled - the server it was on will have its other services migrated to a new OS over the next couple of months and then the last traces of that vile software will be erased! Oh how I look forward to that day. Ok, in fairness a lot of my disdain for the product was that AU and NZ telco providers seemed to be utterly incapable of properly provisioning BES services against an account… Oh, and its price… …and its complexity… …and the phones pokey interface… …and… ---
**Author:** ![Paullamontagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paullamontagne](https://forums.suse.com/u/Paullamontagne)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 4:35pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/2 "2013-07-17T16:35:47Z")
Don’t hold back tell us how you really feel??? 🙂 [color=blue][color=green][color=darkred] > > > [/color][/color] > > > Yay! Last user migrated off the abomination that was BES. > > It’s shutdown and disabled ‑ the server it was on will have its other > services migrated to a new OS over the next couple of months and then > the last traces of that vile software will be erased! Oh how I look > forward to that day. > > Ok, in fairness a lot of my disdain for the product was that AU and NZ > telco providers seemed to be utterly incapable of properly provisioning > BES services against an account… > Oh, and its price… > …and its complexity… > …and the phones pokey interface… > …and…[/color] – Paul ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/3 "2013-07-17T18:26:02Z")
I had two of those abominations running and was incredibly happy to kill them. ## – bpenris bpenris’s Profile: [https://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7496](https://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7496) View this thread: [https://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=468222](https://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=468222) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 6:29am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/4 "2013-07-18T06:29:27Z")
Paul Lamontagne wrote: [color=blue] > Don’t hold back tell us how you really feel??? :-)[/color] I’d have to invent new languages with more colourful profanities to fully express the depth of my loathing of the product. 🙂 It’s made all the worse by having to endorse the solution for a number of years. ---
**Author:** ![Paullamontagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paullamontagne](https://forums.suse.com/u/Paullamontagne)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/5 "2013-07-18T16:37:09Z")
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred] > > > [/color][/color] > > > Paul Lamontagne wrote: > > > [color=green] > > > Don’t hold back tell us how you really feel??? :‑)[/color] > > I’d have to invent new languages with more colourful profanities to > fully express the depth of my loathing of the product. :‑) > > It’s made all the worse by having to endorse the solution for a number > of years.[/color] Coming from being a client of a BES 5 sever for many years I can honestly say that I have hardly ever had any issues in the almost 10 years that I’ve been using a BB connected with a BES. But I didn’t have to manage it…🙂 – Paul ---
**Author:** ![buckesfeld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c77e96/32.png) [@buckesfeld](https://forums.suse.com/u/buckesfeld)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 11:35am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/6 "2013-07-19T11:35:54Z")
Paul Lamontagne wrote: [color=blue] > Coming from being a client of a BES 5 sever for many years I can honestly > say that I have hardly ever had any issues in the almost 10 years that > I’ve been using a BB connected with a BES.[/color] Similar here. Once in a while the thing forgets to do things it should and needs a reboot, but else it’s doing a great job. U ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2013, 11:50pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/7 "2013-07-21T23:50:49Z")
Paul Lamontagne wrote: [color=blue] > Coming from being a client of a BES 5 sever for many years I can > honestly say that I have hardly ever had any issues in the almost 10 > years that I’ve been using a BB connected with a BES. > > But I didn’t have to manage it…:-)[/color] My disdain for the solution was death by a thousand cuts - The client UI was shockingly bad. - very limited device support - build quality of devices was poor - The server software was clunky and expensive - You paid a premium for the service on each account and relied upon Telcos remembering to properly set up BES services against a connection - You had to pay yet more to get support from Rim - features and updates were very slow to make it to GroupWise It pushed email and it did that pretty well - yup, once the user was set up, generally not too much in the way of dramas. Server software typically just worked. But compared to the cost of Activesync solutions, the ease of use of the devices for the end users…well… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2013, 11:52pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/8 "2013-07-21T23:52:31Z")
Uwe Buckesfeld wrote: [color=blue] > but else it’s doing a great job.[/color] _Great_? Does it really excel, or does it just do its job? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![buckesfeld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c77e96/32.png) [@buckesfeld](https://forums.suse.com/u/buckesfeld)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 11:36am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/9 "2013-07-22T11:36:24Z")
Scott Campbell wrote: [color=blue] > _Great_? Does it really excel, or does it just do its job? ;-)[/color] After all these years I adjusted my expectations. Just do the job = great 🙂 U ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/10 "2013-07-22T12:58:14Z")
Uwe Buckesfeld wrote: [color=blue] > After all these years I adjusted my expectations. Just do the job = > great :-)[/color] LOL! I don’t think I’ve quite reached that level of cynicism yet. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![buckesfeld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c77e96/32.png) [@buckesfeld](https://forums.suse.com/u/buckesfeld)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/11 "2013-07-22T16:57:34Z")
Scott Campbell wrote: [color=blue] > LOL! I don’t think I’ve quite reached that level of cynicism yet. :-)[/color] I’m just being realistic! U ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/12 "2013-07-22T18:45:16Z")
On 22/07/2013 09:36, Uwe Buckesfeld wrote:[color=blue] > Scott Campbell wrote: > [color=green] > > > _Great_? Does it really excel, or does it just do its job? ;-)[/color] > > After all these years I adjusted my expectations. Just do the job = great > :-)[/color] Just does the job = Good No users phone up and whine = Great 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 11:34pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/13 "2013-07-22T23:34:46Z")
Uwe Buckesfeld wrote: [color=blue] > I’m just being realistic![/color] Isn’t that what all cynics say? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 11:35pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/14 "2013-07-22T23:35:55Z")
Dave Howe wrote: [color=blue] > Just does the job = Good > No users phone up and whine = Great > > :)[/color] LOL! Well, I guess that validates my question to Uwe 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![buckesfeld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c77e96/32.png) [@buckesfeld](https://forums.suse.com/u/buckesfeld)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/15 "2013-07-23T14:45:25Z")
Scott Campbell wrote: [color=blue] > Uwe Buckesfeld wrote: > [color=green] > > > I’m just being realistic![/color] > > Isn’t that what all cynics say? :-)[/color] “Cynic, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are not as they ought to be.” (Ambrose Bierce) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/16 "2013-07-24T18:36:01Z")
Our BES is version 4.1, I hardly have to pay attention to it. Maybe once or twice a year a user stops receiving their email and I have to redo the user when all else fails. Scott, what will you be using instead of the BES? I understand the BES is still the best option in terms of encryption. ## – lanaleon lanaleon’s Profile: [https://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=16538](https://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=16538) View this thread: [https://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=468222](https://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=468222) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/goodbye-bes/24163/17 "2013-07-25T01:59:22Z")
lanaleon wrote: [color=blue] > Our BES is version 4.1, I hardly have to pay attention to it. Maybe > once or twice a year a user stops receiving their email and I have to > redo the user when all else fails.[/color] My gripes with BES haven’t been the fact that it doesn’t run - infact you’ll note in one of my other posts I mentioned that it just worked. The issues revolve around the BES software being pretty clunky, lack or slow adoption of new features etc. Counter intuitive client devices, telco errors, service cost and poor build quality on client devices. Interestingly, I think that I was the only BB user out of 12 whose BB lasted more than 18 months, let alone the expected 36 month contract churn cycle. Other devices; iPhones, Androids seem to be holding up to a larger userbase. [color=blue] > Scott, what will you be using instead of the BES? I understand the BES > is still the best option in terms of encryption.[/color] We are using Novell Datasync now.