Re: Replace MS Exchange
-- Joyce, Matthew <MJoyce@ccia.org.au> wrote
(on Thursday, 24 October 2002, 02:05 PM +1000):
> Has anyone done any research into completely replacing an existing MS
> Exchange email setup ?
> I have Exchange 5.5 with PC and Mac clients, they use a mixture of Eudora or
> Outlook.
<snip>
> I just wondered if it was feasably to make the move over to a linux based
> email server.
>
> Cirtainly the majority of the mac clients only use pop3 or imap features of
> the server, but there are a good few who use the calendaring and public
> folders.
>
> I would like to offer webmail, which seems easier with linux.
> I have use SquirrrelMail as a webmail to Exchange via IMAP before (test) but
> it create some odd folders in the mail box and the MS mail objects such as
> meeting requests and notes and stuff were not understood.
Such an Exchange replacement has often been touted as the next "killer
app" for Linux. As yet, no free drop-in replacements exist. Bynari has
some server software that's supposedly fairly reasonable in price and
based mostly on open-source software, and a company contracted by the
German government has started work on such an application.
If you're not using calendar stuff much -- and not using it for resource
booking (i.e. conference rooms, et. al.), you could probably drop in an
IMAP server for mail and an LDAP server for the company address book
(and authentication if you want); besides SquirrelMail, there are quite
a number of web-based mail interfaces under the GPL.
If you still need some calendaring, and don't have a need for resource
scheduling, there are a number of web-based groupware applications out
there. Search on Freshmeat for WebCal -- it's maturing nicely, and uses
a flat-file format that can import and export i/vCal fairly well (last I
used it, it had some problems with importing/exporting recurring events
properly, but this may have been fixed).
If the majority of your clients aren't using Outlook or the full
functionality of Exchange, it makes sense to retrain those few who are
-- you'll still end up saving costs on licenses.
--
Matthew Weier O'Phinney
matthew@weierophinney.net
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