[Leaplist] exchange replacement?

[Dan Cherry]

> howdy all-
>
> i have a potential client who needs an exchange server, but can't afford
> 100 client access licenses and doesn't want to "hack" anything to run
> illegal or unlicensed software. they aren't married to windows, and as
> long as the clients on their (desktop? browser?) do what they need, they
> don't care if the server is windows, linux, mac, solaris, or an old
> refrigerator.
>
> specifically, they need:
>
> - email (obviously, and that's not a problem)
> - shared calendars
> - shared task lists

John,

You didn't mention if the clients had to include windows or mac.  If so, then 
that's a show stopper right up front for this suggestion!

But if the clients can be all Linux, then KDE's Kontact can access/use mail, 
addressbooks, calendars, and todo lists from a simple IMAP server (by using 
the KDE Resource method to manage the calendars/todos/addresses, the pim data 
is stored in separate imap mailboxes in a form which can be read by 
kmail/kontact).  All four are kept in the IMAP mail server with no special 
server considerations.  

Mail is accessible by any IMAP client you like (any platform, as well), BUT, 
the addressbooks, calendar and todo's can only be accessed conveniently with 
Kmail/Kontact.  So that's likely a show stopper.  

The only advantage for this solution, is no need for a groupware server on top 
of the IMAP server.  (Well, it's all free licensing, as well, and I guess 
that's an advantage, too)

I've been using this for a few years, and the only quirk is an occasional ding 
in the local indexes which can easily be corrected with a simple script to 
delete the bad indexes (this quirk seems to have been eliminated with KDE4).  
Sharing has been well implemented with mail notifications for calendars and 
multiple addressbooks for personal, group, or company contacts.  For the 
future, KDE4 is planned for use on Windows and Mac, but not any time soon 
enough to be of value to you.

Dan

>
> the only other thing i remember exchange server offering is shared storage
> folders, and (1) they don't need that, and (2) if they did, i'm pretty
> sure dovecot (the IMAP server i plan to use) already has a way to do it.
>
> i *know* i'm not the first person to run into this issue, and i plan to do
> some research on "groupware" stuff later this evening. i'm just curious if
> anybody else on the list has had any real experience with this issue, and
> what they ended up doing.
>
> (no sig, sending via webmail)

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