One of our limited number of gripes (thinking about it, it was the only one) we had with the Polycom Communicator was that it was only supported on the Windows platform.
We mourned the lack of Mac and Linux support. Given that all Polycom needed to do was write a driver or two to get it running, we were disappointed that there was no movement on this yesterday.
We got in contact with a Little Bird that’s connected to the company, and after some goading, we heard that Polycom _are_ working on the missing USB drivers. They came close to assuring us that the Mac support should be available this year. There was a lot less certainty about the Linux support.
We want to stress that there’s no official word on this as yet, but we’ve got reasonably high confidence in our source.
Vista Stinks
A point of interest. When we tried to install the Communicator on Windows Vista we found that there wasn’t a driver available for Vista as yet (frankly not a unique outcome with Vista).
Great, so possible sometime this year (nine months to go), Polycom may get around to possibly writing a driver for the Communicator for the Mac. I seem to recall that last year they promised it for Q1 this year.
Wonderful service from Polycom (not!). Learnt my lesson with Polycom, buy something else.
Rob – I hadn’t heard that they’d given assurance. I’d like to follow it up, could you post a URL for the Q1 story?
I asked Polycom about the Mac drivers in January. I got a response (below) on Jan 23, 2007 which states the target date for release of the mac drivers was mid-March. I suggest that everyone post a support ticket requesting mac or linux drivers for this device. It has wonderful performance on the PC. We should not be left out.
Website is here:
http://www.polycom.com/resource_center/1,,pw-16641,FF.html
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Hello Mr. Simmons,
Email Case #: 56279
Original Message Follows:
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We are currently working on Mac Support for Polycom Communicator with
the help of Apple and Skype. We are hoping to do a joint press release
(Skype, Apple, Polycom) at the VON show in March about the availability
of SW to support Skype for Mac. Mid-March is our target to have the SW
publicly available.
Thank you,
Jim
Polycom eSupport
_________________
Bill – thanks for the details. I think the Polycom would sell well to Mac users – they’d appreciate the quality of build and design.
Well…I see we are now at nearly May 1…and no Mac drivers. I have clients waiting for the Mac drivers, and then I can implement a Skype/Mac/Polycom solution – Please!