Thanks a lot for the pointer. I've been having a look at some groupware solutions that could compete / substitute Exchange, and the most "interesting" I've found are:
- Zimbra (www.zimbra.com): Seems nice, the web client is powerful, and the Oulook integration plugin (MAPI plugin) works OK. The version that has Outlook integration is - GroupWise (http://www.novell.com/products/groupwise/). I'd have to look into it a bit more carefully, but seems to be more-than-we-need :) But the eDirectory requirement makes it a bit of a hassle to setup. - Merak Groupware Server: Not personal experience with it, but good opinions. - Kolab: 100% Open Source. A bit tender on the "setup" side, but with the important advantage that all the "pieces" run on FreeBSD, so having it running on our already existing server would be simpler than in other cases... - Open-Xchange (http://www.open-xchange.org/): Good impressions, the version that has Outlook Connector is for-pay, but I believe it might be worth looking into. Of course, I'd love to hear opinions / do's and don't's that people around here might wish to offer. In any case, my current thinking is more along the lines that it'll be probably less hassle long-term if we look for a hosted solution instead of trying to do it all ourselves (after all, our core is not email or server management but sw development; see my previous post on this thread for a little overview of our -IMO- rather unusual setup). Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read this far. I don't know if I'd taken the time to hear myself out ;) ;) Javier Jarava On 05/12/06, Kevin Brunson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I know there are a bunch of "exchange clones" out there, but I have yet to come across one I would recommend. That doesn't mean there is not one out there. If all you want to use it for is a shared calendar, you may want to check out a company called softalk. http://www.softalkltd.com They have several programs that do this kind of thing. Honestly I wouldn't use them as an email server, but if you want to use it for Outlook synchronization and shared calendars, it does a pretty good job. I think it only runs on Windows.... It uses an Outlook plugin, so no messy webapps, and if you don't use it for processing email you wouldn't have to mess with your current email setup at all (which again I highly recommend if you use this product). -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Javier Jarava Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 4:02 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ActiveDir] Maybe OT: Shared Calendars w/o using Exchange? Tips/Suggestions/Recommedations? Hi! Sorry if this question is a bit off-topic to the list, but I've seen some Exchange-related questions here, so I know there is Exchange expertise hanging around ;) and I didn't know where to ask; please feel free to point me to the proper forums (forii?) to ask in. I am looking for a way to implement shared calendars "a la exchange" (ie, they have to be "visible" and used from within Outlook 2003), but without actually using/hosting an Exchange Server ourselves. The idea is that people should be able to see/manage the calendar of the people they manage, so free/busy info is not enough. And the "outlook" requisite is a must (as my CEO put it yesterday: "I live within Outlook; I don't want to meddle with web apps or the like) I know that it's a bit odd of a requisite, but we are a small co. (~ 40 employees) and the president feels that having to babysit a server in-house is a bit of a needless burden. At present we host our email / web presence / customer ticketing system in a pair of VPS from Verio, so if the proposed solution could run on top of FreeBSD it'd be a big plus ;) Of course (now going for the "and ask about the KitchenSink" part ;) if we could put it into place without having to tweak our email setup that'd be wonderful!!. We understand that we'd probably have to install some Outlook plugin, so that's OK... If there is no way to have the "Shared Calendar" feature as a stand-alone service/server, I guess the next step would be to ask those of you who know Exchange for an "exchange clone" that runs on FreeBDS / Unix..... Or last but not least, I guess that there must be "hosted Exchange" providers out there that you can recommend. That'd mean re-doing our mail system, but I guess that we could live with it, if need be. Thanks a lot for those of you who have read this far. Best Regards Javier Jarava List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
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