[Leaplist] exchange replacement?

[Tom Parker]

On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 5:45 PM, <jms1 at jms1.net> wrote:
>
> 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.

I have limited experience with the variety of groupware that is out
there, but I have become very fond of Zimbra (http://www.zimbra.com).
They have an open source free version as well as a pay-per-user
version.  You can even use a hosting provider like 01.com if they
don't want to buy a server.

>
> specifically, they need:
>
> - email (obviously, and that's not a problem)
> - shared calendars
> - shared task lists

Shared calendars and tasks work quite well in Zimbra. The only gotcha
I had is that Zimbra doesn't have public folders like exchange does.
We worked around it by creating a common user and sharing the
calendars and folders from there.

> 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.

Check out Zimbra's stuff.  I think you'll like it.  If you'd like to
partner up on this task, contact me off list.

Tom Parker

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.