Exchange Alternatives Round-up 365
richi writes "eWEEK has a review of Linux-based alternatives to MS Exchange: Group Where? Almost Anywhere. Focusing on how well they integrate with Outlook, it looks at Bynari Insight 4.2, CommuniGate Pro 4.2, Gordano 11 and Scalix Server 9.2.1."
All too big - Hula is a better way to move (Score:4, Informative)
If you want to get off the MS crack (Score:5, Informative)
Re:MAPI? (Score:4, Informative)
RTFA:
The problem with MAPI has been less an issue of reverse engineering a protocol, and more an issue of trying to replicate the DCOM interface. Microsoft piled on the technology stacks in making MAPI, thus confounding attempts to create a compatible connector. It was only a year or two ago that Ximian finally figured it out.
GroupWise? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:They forgot about ExchangeIt (Score:2, Informative)
Sorry but no thanks.
Lotus on Linux (Score:1, Informative)
Lotus *Domino* is the server (analogous to MS Exchange Server), and it's already been ported to Linux for years, in fact Lotus Domino on Linux is one of the best performing and robust Domino platforms you can have, especially on SuSE Linux. IBM doesn't give either the Lotus server or client away for free however, in fact they're quite pricey, but so are MS Exchange server and MS Outlook client. Lotus requires a substantial investment in training, and has a very steep learning curve for administration, plus all your users will hate Lotus because it's not MS Outlook which they're already addicted to using.
All three of these substitute MS Exchange Server wannabes are also somewhat costly too, and that relatively small price difference between the substitute and the real MS thing, I guarantee you will not justify all the hassles of not having the genuine MS Exchange Server in place. MS's integration with Active Directory, powerful admin tools, the worldwide support for antivirus/antispam softwares and a myriad of other 3rd party stuff available for MS Exchange Servers will make any of these substitutes a complete waste of time and money. If you want a free mail server, just make it out of the usual open source stuff on a *nix box and live with it's limitations, or else pony up the cash and buy the real McCoy.
Re:MAPI? (Score:4, Informative)
Ximian hasn't figured out the MAPI, they use WebDAV as their line protocol, I suspect. Could be wrong. Exchange supports WebDAV access.
Trying to reverse MAPI line protocol is insane. What you want to do is write a client-side connector, like all the vendors in the article. I'm working on one at openconnector.org [openconnector.org]
MAPI, btw, is a semi-documented standard. There are at least two books on it. But still, MS keeps tweaking it and doesn't release the changes, so we have to go back and reverse engineer those changes. In all its just a lot of coding, rather and reverse engineering.
Re:MAPI? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Active Directory integration? (Score:5, Informative)
AD, Exchange, SQL, etc on 1 box, supported.
Some info about those alternatives... (Score:3, Informative)
Bynari Insight: We've tried working with the software, but testing resulted in much frustration in trying to set it up properly. I'll give kudos for the Bynari folk for helping out... but it looks like there's a long way to go. Maybe they need to upgrade their config to reflect Postfix changes...
CommunigatePro: Everyone favorite, because it's so eaaaaaaazzzzzzzzyyyyy. This one all I needed to do was manual tweak a few things and it's running perfectly. Expensive, but worth it.
Scalix: We're testing this one out now. It requires ether RedHat, Fedora, SuSE, or an RPM based system that you can fake out to be ether one of the three -- it ships as an RPM-based installer. It also runs on Java, but it comes with Tomcat, configures itself and Apache, and it works! The community edition is out and free, with some limitations, and there's no native mail fetching (but we can use Fetchmail).
We haven't tried Gordano, but we have tried exchange4linux (e4l) and that was a mess to set up.
Re:IBM fails once again (Score:3, Informative)
Click here [ibm.com] to download a trial of Lotus Domino for Linux. Click here [ibm.com] for a Notes client for Windows (works on Wine) and Mac.
Re:MAPI? (Score:3, Informative)
MAPI and the Exchange protocol are two different things. MAPI is an API, a set of functions, for programs that run on Windows to do mail-related stuff. It is also an abstraction, that hides the actual over-the-wire protocol used to talk to Exchange. Third party vendors implement the MAPI interface so that Outlook (and other MAPI clients, if there are any?) can use it. The actual protocol used for talking to their servers is completely different from what Exchange uses.
Re:They forgot about ExchangeIt (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Exchange is rarely the right solution (Score:3, Informative)
* To feel important by using more of those MS Office components (Word - check; Excel - check; Outlook - ah ha! check; Powerpoint - hmmmmm *gets cracking on a hum-dinger of a presentation about NOTHING; Access - What the?) They cost a bundle - need to use them!
* Integration with the Windows Network
* Corporate, MS monopolized computing environment dictates its use
* MCSE originally set up the network and all the functionality, carved operating procedures in stone
* Too ignorant to try something original
* Outlook Express is free, so it can't be any good.
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So true. I'd be implementing that at my current job if they hadn't just bled anally to upgrade 5.5 to 2000. Instead, I get to extend and entrench that garbage.
In One workday, I loaded a debian box, apt-got each of those packages (and more), configured them, and had the thing working.
With Windows, I have to upgrade the NT4 machine to 2000 & apply all applicable Service Packs (to get to Active Directory) before I can upgrade the MAIL SERVER.
If you are facing this situation, and you have any control over the decision making process, MOVE AWAY FROM WINDOWS AT ALL COSTS (which are actually decreased)
Windows has no place outside of corporations with IT departments that need to support Grandfathered Windowsisms. Shares, public folders, collab, email, all can be handled for $0, with an infinate (and also $0) upgrade path.
FirstClass! (Score:1, Informative)
A long time ago I used to work for the company that made the software, so perhaps I'm biased. However, this offers the same functionality as Exchange/Notes and a whole lot more. Unified messaging is the heart of this product, but the featureset is staggering. Server support on Linux/Windows/OSX, client support for each, as well as web/phone/pda/etcetera.
I could go on and on about the features, but http://www.firstclass.com/AboutFC/ [firstclass.com] has a tonne of information to peruse and it will do a better job of informing you than I will.
Do yourself a favour and at least look at the features before settling on some other product that will offer either less functionality, or a much higher price point.
JA
Re:Communigate Pro (Score:3, Informative)
>an open source mail package that can live up to that particular boast.
Try Hula [hula-project.org].
-Mark
Lotus Notes on Linux (Score:3, Informative)
Lotus Notes runs under Linux if you use wine. IIRC IBM had to do some work to get it going, but at least since 2002 it's possible.
Open-Xchange? (Score:3, Informative)
Don't worry about this jackass (Score:5, Informative)
Exchange is good software. It Just Works. And it performs exceptionally well. I've been working with it for years.
I consulted at a Univerisity with two Active/Passive Exchange clusters servicing over 12,000 users. Some used Outlook, some used POP/IMAP, some used OWA. It was Exchange 2000, later 2003. It's not like these were powerhouse big-iron type machines, either - quad processor boxes with 4GB RAM attached to a Clariion, I think they were 2.4Ghz Xeons. Of course, those were the mailbox servers - we had other machines for connectors and OWA front-end. But that's just normal best practices with a busy Exchange environment.
Another placed I worked at had dual-processor Compaq DL380's running the show, with over 2500 users per node. No sweat.
Usually, poor performance on Exchange is due to mis-configurations and not enough disk I/O. You can throw as many processors you want at Exchange, but it's really all about IO.
This guy also doesn't know the first thing about database servers if he's bitching about the memory usage on Store.exe. Store.exe is (as we know) the information store database service. It will use as much memory as it needs, and as is available. Usually the big memory usage is just cached data. Store.exe will give up all it's cached paged as soon as another app requires it. A lot of these kids now a days still think every app needs to run in 200k memory or it's "bloat." What's the point in having 4GB RAM if your applications don't use it?
They've obviously never administered a large database server. A big MS-SQL database server will cache the whole database, if it can. 1GB on store.exe? Try 4GB on mssql.exe.
I agree that there's issues with Exchange when it comes to administration (Public Folders can get unmanagable if you don't pay very close attention to user activity, although since Exchange 2000 I've never had any issues with PF Replication.) Overall, there's no other system that's as capable as Exchange for your basic groupware needs. It's VERY stable.
Hell No (Score:3, Informative)
No...don't do it. Yeah, the price is attractive, with everything in one box. But the problem is that a lot of the things in SBS are crippled, and as one consultant put it, "SBS is a Frankenstein of complexity underneath". And if you're getting the version with SQL, you have to buy hardware and memory that's so beefy, you could have bought two inexpensive servers otherwise (unless you like your network and mail to crawl). SBS limits what you can do with your network. It's the same old Microsoft story...they've come up with a model for doing things, great, but if that model doesn't fit how you do things, then you're screwed. Want to run a website locally? If you do it on SBS, you're opening your whole network up to those dangers that come with that territory. Want Outlook Web Access? Same thing. That's the problem with server consolidation in general, and SBS in particular. You've got all this great stuff in one box, but if the box goes down, everything goes down.
If you're dead-set on SBS, than use a web and mail hosting service, and get a box with dual processors and lots of memory. And I mean Lots.
Re:Communigate Pro (Score:3, Informative)
The only problem with Communigate Pro is that it is *****EXPENSIVE*****. For a small hosting company with 1000 email boxes, they wanted *****THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS*****. That's *****THIRTY TWO DOLLARS PER MAILBOX*****. That's insane. Even Microsoft doesn't charge anywhere near that much, and I think MS's products are way overpriced.
In case I haven't made my point, it's ridiculously expensive. It's not geared to any business that isn't already an ISP. (I know, because I used to work at a small ISP, and they used it, but still had serious reservations about the price.)
There's also SurgeMail [netwinsite.com], which is very similar to CommuniGate, but isn't nearly as expensive.
More CGP information - BIASED (Score:2, Informative)
A download is available in a fully functional version except for a few limitations:
http://communigate.com/content/download.htm [communigate.com]
We are running a coding contest for Voice applications on our easy to use development environment:
http://communigate.com/cgpl-contest [communigate.com]
The product manual will help if anyone would like to try these applications:
http://communigate.com/communigatepro [communigate.com]
BTW, this software runs and is supported on thirty-something platforms.
Go ORACLE (Score:2, Informative)
If you're an Oracle shop, you might want to investigate this one.
Yes, I realize that that free solutions exist, but some organizations are willing to/prefer to go with commercial software solutions.