OT: Linux Exchange Server

[Robin M.]

On Sun, 14 Dec 2003, Corey S. McFadden wrote:
> Sorry for the OT post, but I wanted to solicit some informed opinions and
> couldn't think of a better group...
>
> I was wondering what experiences anyone has had with some of the 3rd-party
> MS Exchange Server simulators for Linux.  We evaluated a couple of
> solutions about a year ago without going very far with it, but are going to
> be revisiting the subject for a new client.  (Have you seen Exchange Server
> 2003 CAL costs?!)  In the past, OpenExchange looked very attractive, but we
> don't have any practical experience with it.
>
> Anyhow, if anyone can offer any personal experience with OpenExchange or
> any of the other products (off-list if you like) I would appreciate it!
>
> -Corey
>
>
There are a few products that do this. At the heart of it all is the
cyrus imap server as it does access control lists which can be used to
create shared folders per user. Each vendor complements the cyrus server
with other software such as squirrelmail with enhancements, smartsieve,
phpical, postnuke/phpnuke/metadot etc.. etc..
Most of the server side stuff is all open source except for a resource
management software, which is when you schedule meetings with resources
such as boardrooms and they automatically accept or decline.

The biggest difference between vendors is really the client code which is
a plugin which you install for use with outlook. I have tried the bynari
plugin and it seems to be the most advanced and everything does seem to
work properly. I do not beleive that SuSE has their own outlook connector
plugin and you have to additionally use the Ximian plugin. I could be
wrong. The Bynari server does not come budled with very many features but
it is quite easy to add any other components. I have installed a bynari
server for a customer and installed MailScanner onto it and it works
perfectly fine. They also actually promote MailScanner on their site.