Thank Goodness - Good Mobile Messaging Suite 5.0 Released

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=200000615' target='_blank'>http://www.informationweek.com/news...cleID=200000615</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Good Mobile Messaging 5.0, is a best-of-both-worlds tool that "gives IT everything they could ever want" in terms of centrally controlling any policy over remote devices, while "not impairing users' ability to get stuff done on the smartphone." To a large degree that means managing applications. The new software allows IT departments to require all devices to use mandatory applications, such as virus-protection software, and to ban the launch of blacklisted applications not meeting company guidelines. Good 5 also allows advanced password and encryption management and the temporary lockdown of possibly compromised devices -- rather than a complete shutdown and erase requiring the full reinstalling of software if the device is recovered."</i><br /><br /><img src=http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Temporale-20070627-Good5.jpg><br /><br />Is Good any good? I wouldn't know as I don't use it - but they look like they're stepping up a bit with a 5.0 release. Any Good users here? How Good is good? Does Good do any good for you? Are any of my repeated word sentences any good? Is it good that I'm ending this post? :)

[k_kirk]

Great news! I used Good experimentally for a while and I was impressed with its stability over BB Connect from RIM. They both are resource hogs. Negative for Good was the fact that it used its own db to store all PIM data as well as email so if you wish to use Today goodies etc they are all useless. In contrast, BB Connect uses the standard db. Last gripe with Good was the fact that VGA devices were not supported. I wonder if this changed with the new version.

[mstockham]

I use Good for my work email, and have the following observations

1 Limited device support - Only a select few Windows Mobile devices are supported, and new devices take ages to get added
2 Memory footprint - Good is MASSIVE, especially if you only have a 64 meg device (like most in the supported device list). Good has to be installed to memory, leaving very little space for running anything, let alone installing!
3 Performance - Good seems VERY slow on my XDA mini S, regardless of any tweaks
4 Duplicate Calendar and contacts - Good maintains its own lists, and hijacks your buttons etc. Of course you cant voice dial or anything useful from Goods contacts, so you end up adding them into the original contact list so you can ID callers etc!
5 Annoying password - the password kicks in ALL THE TIME, so you constantly need to enter it, not so handy one handed.
6 On the plus side, you do get your corporate email on a WM device, and if you are running multiple mobile platforms (nokia / Microsoft etc)it makes sense

Just my £0.02 worth.....

MS

[cameron]

5 Annoying password - the password kicks in ALL THE TIME, so you constantly need to enter it, not so handy one handed.

There's a hack to either increase the password time-out or to disable the password altogether. I posted details here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=970939#315688

Hopefully this won't go away with the 5.0 release.

[that_kid]

i'm forced to use good at work and I hate every minute of it. The software is slow, i've had it slowdown my device to the point of a soft resets plus i've had good just forget that it was running. This is on a device that has nothing else installed but good. Unfortunately I have no choice at work.

[islandsnow]

MASSIVE resource hog and it overtakes everything on your device, buttons, contacts, etc.. there are hacks though. usage for users is easy though. sometimes i get my email on my device before it appears on my desktop outlook. and it finally seems like good v5 will support sending attachments. it might be good for larger corporations, but for smaller ones like ours, i think the built in microsoft direct push is working out really well.

[mstockham]

It looks like those settings will not persist with 5, never mind.......