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You already mentioned openexchange. Of course there is always Lotus Notes, not exactly a drop-in m-exchange replacement but an interesting product all the same, and well suited to large enterprises.

Here are some possible ms-exchange replacement products of interest, in no particular order -

http://www.scalix.com/

http://www.bynari.com/

http://www.stalker.com/CommuniGatePro/

They discussed and tested the following

1. SuSE OpenExchange Server 4
2. Samsung Connect
3. Stalker CommuniGate
4. Easygate Workgroup
5. Bynari Insight Server

The April archive is online and link is here. There are a number of PDF files with the article details in them.

"It's so important and is probably the major problem facing Linux as viable replacements for Win2000 servers."

Right, because Lotus Notes has the majority share of corporate e-mail solutions or because Bynari offers an Exchange replacement that runs on Unix.

This is such a stupid statement. Active Directory is a much bigger problem in replacing Win2k servers since your Linux servers would more or less be stranded on the network as is.

Uh, you install Open Office or Star Office on the computer and remove Microsoft Office. Pretty simple huh?

But if you're users are using Access, you're pretty much SOL. Same if they are using Outlook and are connected to Exchange. If this is the case, you need to change your mail server first. See Bynari for a Linux-based group scheduling/email application. But even then, I don't know of any calendaring apps in Windows outside of Outlook. There may be others but I'm not familiar with Windows apps anymore.

MS Exchange server functionality on Linux already exists. It's a great product from Bynari.
It allows all Outlook clients to connect to the Insight Server and delivers full groupware functionality.

In Europe, LIFE resells this product and assists in migrations

35,000 users / 300 servers => 117 users per server. I could do that with PostFix and 300 matchbox '386es! IBM have TWO MILLION USERS on ONE zSeries box, no sweat, for much less than the software cost alone of running two million Exchange clients. Now that is `scales well'!

Damn Microsoft and their abuse of terminology! An `embedded' system should not require 64 or 128MB of RAM and gigabytes of disk!PS: visit Bynari for another Exchange alternative, including alternative clients.

...OpenMail is the *only* e-mail platform out there, besides Exchange that will support a whole slew of Microsoft Outlook features.

That is not true (any more). The Calendar product in OpenMail is a version of the Steltor CorporateTime calendar. The Steltor Calendar has an Outlook 'service provider' that allows Outlook to talk to their calendar server. Combine that with SMTP/IMAP4/LDAP, and you've got a close competitor to Exchange..

Take a look at Bynari's Insight product... for another 'possbility'.. Calendar-server less calender service!

Oh, one thing about OpenMail.. it IS standards based, as long as you don't mind running an X.400 mail system with an SMTP gateway...

Ximian Evolution (www.ximian.com) has a pretty good Outlook Today type feature called Summary.

Also and as an alternative for those of us in mixed *ix/MS environments, I'm told that Insight (www.bynari.com) can interact with MS Exchange for the purpose of calendar booking/sharing, etc.

Late late news!

Burlington Coat Factory will install Linux on 1,150 computers in its 250 stores over the next 12 to 18 months.

"Burlington will run Red Hat Software Inc.'s version of Linux on 1,250 Dell OptiPlex® PCs for office management, to administer its Baby Registry and to handle back-office functions such as shipping and receiving. Dell will factory-install Red Hat Linux software through its DellPlus service on the OptiPlex GX1 computers, giving Burlington the ease and efficiency of PCs that arrive ready to use."

Sited from: Linux in Business

Im still locked into m$ office for exchange server. Until someone comes out with an Exchange klone, m$ will dominate the market.

Well it's not a complete exchange killer, but Insight Server from Bynari isn't a bad replacement. It has had some big press lately. It doesn't use MAPI, only LDAP, POP3, IMAP, various standard protocols. Outlook works if you configure it correctly (very easy). It has a few drawbacks, such as the Outlook configuring, but overall it's a decent product. I've implemented it before and my clients were very pleased. It's $299 for 100 users, so it's not free but it's darn cheap compared to Exchange.

Here's what a company called Bynari sells for about $600 and bills as a replacement for exchange:

Insight Server incorporates RFC standards based protocols, open source software and Bynari's web based management interface which makes a powerful messaging and collaboration tool for your organization. Insight Server provides support for messaging and collaboration functions of Exchange without the usage of closed protocols. Components include IMAP, LDAP, iCalendar, SMTP, and POP3. The management and administration tool and the install/configuration scripts provide a value-add many UNIX and Linux administrators appreciate. BONUS* Use Insight Server as your messaging and collaboration tool for Microsoft(tm) Outlook. Our configuration guide can help you set up Outlook to work with and use Insight server as it's service provider.

I bet it would be pretty easy to set up the programs yourself. Bynari even provides a pdf-file that explains how to set-up Outlook to speak to the free products. here's a partial list that their product installs for you:

• exim
• sendmail
• IMAP -- There are a lot of these around, but they don't mention which one.
• OpenLDAP
• Calendaring -- Again, they don't say which one.

Here's what a company called Bynari sells for about $600 and bills as a replacement for exchange:

Insight Server incorporates RFC standards based protocols, open source software and Bynari's web based management interface which makes a powerful messaging and collaboration tool for your organization. Insight Server provides support for messaging and collaboration functions of Exchange without the usage of closed protocols. Components include IMAP, LDAP, iCalendar, SMTP, and POP3. The management and administration tool and the install/configuration scripts provide a value-add many UNIX and Linux administrators appreciate. BONUS* Use Insight Server as your messaging and collaboration tool for Microsoft(tm) Outlook. Our configuration guide can help you set up Outlook to work with and use Insight server as it's service provider.

I bet it would be pretty easy to set up the programs yourself. Bynari even provides a pdf-file that explains how to set-up Outlook to speak to the free products. here's a partial list that their product installs for you:

• exim
• sendmail
• IMAP -- There are a lot of these around, but they don't mention which one.
• OpenLDAP
• Calendaring -- Again, they don't say which one.

I installed StarOffice (I guess it's OpenOffice now) and found that it's able to open most anything my MS-using colleagues send my way.

Also note that Bynari now ships an Outlook/Exchange compatible mail client that makes fitting into an MS network a lot easier. I think it may be closed source, though, not sure.

--

That's not something I wanted to hear. I would have liked to implement it. Now that they're giving up, I don't think anyone would want to move to it.

Don't give up *all* hope, however. There is a little known product from Bynari called TradeServer. It's compatible with Outlook (100% I'm told), $500 for unlimited users, runs on Linux, and (here's the kicker) the fully featured UNIX client is open source. They even host it on SourceForge.

It doesn't have PGP support yet, but the client is quite impressive, usable as a standalone client.

I don't know why nobody has been mentioning it here, though.

So for all of you that have been trying to stave off that management push for an Exchange install by showing them OpenMail info (like I have), here's a solution they might like (plus they wouldn't know the difference if you just installed it, wink, wink).

BIG MISTAKE DUDE!

Active Directory has to be in charge of your network. That means you put all of your UNIX at 2000's mercy. Do NOT do it!

I'm currently writing a book on how to keep NT off your network -- completely! Using NIS and (in a future edition) LDAP. People think they must have a native PDC -- NOT TRUE! There is a lot you can do with NIS and NT. [ Note: I was a contributing author of Sam's "Samba Unleashed" by Steve Litt, who is actually a good friend of mine. I was also an original NT 3.1 beta tester and after 8 years of NT, finally chucked it "cold turkey" in mid-1999 because UNIX is just so much better for networks. ]

Again, do NOT put your network at the mercy of 2000 server! Once you do, your network is forever Microsoft controlled. Microsoft did this purposely. And even the IEEE has identified Windows 2000 and Active Directory as a "Threat to Internet Standards and Diversity".

Worse yet is when you put Exchange and SQL 2000 on that same network. Nuts! This really ties you down to MS-only solutions! Exchange is a pig that self-corrupts (you like those 48-hour straight downtimes, eh?)! Try Bynari TradeServer instead (flat $599 -- unlimited users, GTK+ management GUI, standards-based, LDAP-based, 100% Outlook Calendar/Contact compatible), plus they have a UNIX client that can interact with Outlook. So you save money *AND* get Internet standards -- a win-win!

I fight the ignorant on this every day (largely our admin/accounting departments). John Dvorak has pointed it out best (paraphrased), "Microsoft knows standalone PCs, but knows nothing about networking" urging Microsoft to just get out of the network/server business because it doesn't know crap (and Sun seems to be the opposite, good network, bad PC knowledge ;-).

-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith

Will solve 99.9% of your problems. Of course it messes up Outlook's automation features, but that was the problem in the first place. It got rid of all our issues.

BTW, Bynari has an Exchange-server replacement for Linux that will give your Outlook clients most of those features back at the server level. As such, we're thinking about switching from HP OpenMail to Bynari's TradeServer.

-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith

I think the article is dead on. Case in point:

I saw a quote from someone at Bynari Inc. whining about how they couldn't find people with Linux skills in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. So I submitted a resume. Not too impressive, 2 year Computer Science degree, 2 years tech support, 2 years Unix administration (HP-UX, AIX, SCO), 3 years using Linux almost exclusively at home. The guy was complaining about having to train kids fresh out of high school, so I figured I would be a good catch.

I never heard back from them.

Now maybe I just write a shitty resumé, but the way the guy was talking they were hiring anyone who had even heard of Unix.

I wonder how many people they have working on visas right now...

"Free your mind and your ass will follow"

The same company (Bynari Systems) offer an Exchange Server replacement for Linux at $599 for unlimited users.

I have not used either of these products myself so I don't know how good they are...does anyone have any experience of using them?

A company called Bynari International (www.bynari.com) has created a linux client for MS Exchange. It does appear to support the calendar features of Exchange. They have even released a version of the mail client under the LGPL license. It looks really good but it doesn't support IMAP yet. tradeclient