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Citadel requires the purchase of a third-party, MAPI connector to be fully integrated with Outlook. I believe the product is called Bynari Connector

i love linux as much as everyone else but in reality there isn't a product yet out side of exchange that gives the amount of seemless intgration that exchange gives.

So what's wrong with the following products?
http://www.egroupware.org/
http://www.group-office.com/
http://mirror.open-xchange.org/ox/EN/community/
http://www.scalix.com/
http://www.kolab.org/
http://www.opengroupware.org/
http://www.zimbra.com/
http://www.openconnector.org/
Non-free alternatives:
http://www.novell.com/products/groupwise/
http://bynari.net/index.php?id=7
http://www.stalker.com/CommuniGatePro/
http://www.officecalendar.com/
http://www.samsungcontact.com/
http://www.zarafa.com/
http://www.postpath.com/

I look forward to reading your reply.

I had a conversation with one of the openchange developers a few months ago to talk about some of the architecture being built here, and was pleased to find out that they're aiming to do something useful. They do want OpenChange to be useful as a standalone server. That gets you something Outlook can talk to. But they're also going to expose all of the right API's and stuff so that OpenChange can be integrated with an existing store or server. That means that with the right amount of glue code, we'll be able to integrate it with existing open source groupware servers like Citadel or Kolab or OpenGroupware. All of these servers currently have Outlook compatibility, but you need to add a plugin to Outlook in order to make it work. With any luck, OpenChange will allow Outlook to talk to all of these excellent FOSS groupware platforms as if they were Exchange servers.

(Not that I'm knocking the plugins, mind you ... some of them are excellent. I'm particularly fond of Bynari's connector which is totally seamless, works with open source groupware servers, and costs far less than Exchange licenses. But a connector-free option will be nice too.)

Kind of the other way around, however, have you looked at: Insight Connector? It allows Outlook to connect to a IMAP/iCal/Groupware server while providing all of the services that Exchange offers.

Albanach wrote:
What really astonishes me is that open source has made such great leaps in other areas yet there's no apparent replacement for Outlook & Exchange.

Um...

1. Outlook -> EVOLUTION. I use Evolution all day, every day at work to read email and calendars from our Exchange server.
2. Exchange -> SCALIX and ZIMBRA are the two front runners. We're about to evaluate Zimbra to replace our Exchange server (150 employees). Other possible candidates include: Bynari Insight Server, KerioMailServer, @Mail, and the venerable OpenXchange.

Those seem fairly apparent to me.

They even have an Outlook plugin that simulates all the bells and whistles of an Exchange server.

I think there are already reasonable alternatives to Exchange on Linux, though they are not necessarily free.

My organization will in a month or two migrate from our #^$#@% Exchange 5.5 server to Bynari Insight Server. It uses open source components (Postfix, OpenLDAP, etc) and some proprietary components to put together a pretty good set of features. Our IT director did a TCO study, and Bynari (along with all the other Linux options) costs a small fraction of what Exchange would cost. And we think it will do what we need.

Also, this is supported software. Their tech support rocks. They've gone way out of their way to accommodate our demented testing and questions, before we spent a cent! Try that with anything Microsoft.

At first, we'll likely use their web client for calendar/groupware functions, but eventually they say it will support iCal support, which would enable using it with Sunbird. I'm certainly looking forward to that.

There is reason to believe that there will be a truly Free/OSS groupware server on the level of Apache in the next couple years. Until then, Bynari is a very good choice IMHO.

That might be the same with my organization, although Exchange (5.5) is only used in one location.

There's also Bynari Insight Server which has a somewhat impressive feature list, including an Exchange migration tool. We're testing it now. I would be interested in knowing if anyone here uses that.

OPEN-XCHANGE(TM) is a collaboration platform that integrates open source and proprietary servers and clients. Accessible through a common web browser, OPEN-XCHANGE(TM) allows users to share e-mail, calendar, tasks, threaded discussions and documents originating from both proprietary and open source systems. For customers who need seamless integration with a Windows client, commercially available connectors will be released later in 2004.

Same problem as always, move along. Like the Bynari Insight connector, the magic bit is still closed. Interestingly SUSE have a connector called iSLOX for their OpenExchange product, which is a free download; perhaps these two added together will finally be the CAL-free-groupware-with-Outlook-as-the-client we've been looking for?

Bynari has a Linux "exchange server clone" that does not appear to be open source, but does look like it uses IMAP to store email, calendar, etc... in an Outlook-compatable environment. Mixed bag. Also pretty pricey, IMHO.

A different solution is to use the kroupware server (kolab) and the InsightConnector plugin from Bynari to enable Outlook to talk to kolab (the groupware server).
This plugin is freely available as a test version.

This is also explained in the FAQs at kroupware.org.

Kolab, the server :
Architecture paper :
Kontact, the KDE client
Bynari insight connector (not free)LA
Kolab server download :

From the FAQ:
How can I make Outlook talk to the Kolab Server?
You need a Plug-in called InsightConnector from http://bynari.com. This is proprietary software and you need to aquire a license. Demo versions are available. A second company, konsec.com, announced to make a similiar plug-in offering in Q3 2003.

Later on it states:
Is there no Free Software Outlook plugin? Will you create one?
We are not aware of an existing Free Software plug-in for Outlook. Within the Kroupware project we have not been contracted to create such a plug-in. "Kervin L. Pierre" announced to work on it and started sourceforge.net/projects/otlkcon.

Well the solution depends on your needs, of course. I think 'groupware' is really overkill in most instances, but since you're obviously looking for something like that...

Novell Groupwise is a definate contender here. The one downside seems to be that the server end doesn't yet run on *nix (unless I'm misinterpreting?) although that's been planned for awhile. But if you have one Novell or Windows server that can run it, it's pretty client-agnostic, there's a (quite good, I am told) web-based interface as well as clients for Linux, Mac, and Windows.

Bynari Insight is another strong contender, it's what IBM is putting on their linux servers these days and those that have used it seem to really like it.

As I understand it, someone correct me if I'm wrong, what Evolution brings is a little different - the ability to connect to Exchange and Lotus Notes servers, right? So that would be a third possibility, but from what I've read it looks like Insight and Groupware are better systems, unless perhaps you've already invested in Exchange or Notes...

• MS Exchange Server (server end; NT only), MS Outlook (client end; Win32, MacOS). Very limited support of open-protocol clients (IMAP, webmail?). Microsoft Corp. wants to sell you Exchange 2000, these days, but Exchange 5.5 is still very common.

• Lotus Notes / Domino (server end, Linux supported), Lotus Notes (client end; Win32, MacOS). Limited webmail access (iNotes).

• Novell Groupwise. http://www.novell.com/products/groupwise/ Server end runs on either Novell NetWare 5/6 or WinNT. Client end is proprietary Win32 client or webmail. A native Linux client is under development.

• SuSE Linux Openexchange Server (formerly SuSE Linux eMail Server). Standard, good open-source components (Postfix, Apache, Cyrus IMAP, OpenLDAP, OpenSSL) preconfigured to work well with one another, plus a couple of proprietary components: YaST2 for graphical administration, and SkyrixGreen for integrated scheduling and group discussions (shared folders). Client access from any OS, including but not limited to webmail. A full-functional trial version (lacking only "maintenance") is available for US $20 at http://www.suse.com/openexchange/slox_eval_form.ht ml . Sites are known to scale well to at least 1,000 users per site. The largest deployment yet known (March 2003) is 1,900 users.

• Bynari Insight Server, http://www.bynari.net/ . Server end is Linux-based. Intended as a plug-compatible replacement for MS-Exchange Server, based on POP3, IMPA, SMTP, and LDAP, but also with full support for all the special, proprietary MS-Exchange Server RPC-based protocols for group discussion, scheduling, contact management, task lists, etc., when used with MS-Outlook clients. Review: http://linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6734

• Bynari InsightConnector, http://www.bynari.net/ . Extensions that load into MS-Outlook clients to let them perform MS-Exchange-type functions (scheduling, contact-management, public folders) without needing an MS-Exchange server, using only open-standard IMAP, SMTP, and LDAP servers, instead.

• Samsung Contact (formerly HP Openmail), http://samsungcontact.com/en/ . Server end can be Linux-based (or Solaris/AIX). Based on SMTP, IMAP, POP3, LDAP. Supports proprietary protocols for e-mail, scheduling, etc. native to Samsung's Contact client (which is available on Linux and Win32). Webmail access. Implements Microsoft's (documented, for a change) MAPI protocol for scheduling, public folders, offline folders.

• Oracle Collaboration Suite, http://www.oracle.com/ip/deploy/cs/ . Formerly Steltor CorporateTime, http://www.steltor.com/, until that firm's recent acquisition by Oracle. (That product is said to have emerged from Netscape Calendar.) Does IMAP, POP3, SMTP, E-mail, real-time conferences, voicemail, scheduling. Apparently implements all of the special, proprietary MS-Exchange Server RPC-based protocols for group discussion, scheduling, contact management,

• MS Exchange Server (server end; NT only), MS Outlook (client end; Win32, MacOS). Very limited support of open-protocol clients (IMAP, webmail?). Microsoft Corp. wants to sell you Exchange 2000, these days, but Exchange 5.5 is still very common.

• Lotus Notes / Domino (server end, Linux supported), Lotus Notes (client end; Win32, MacOS). Limited webmail access (iNotes).

• Novell Groupwise. http://www.novell.com/products/groupwise/ Server end runs on either Novell NetWare 5/6 or WinNT. Client end is proprietary Win32 client or webmail. A native Linux client is under development.

• SuSE Linux Openexchange Server (formerly SuSE Linux eMail Server). Standard, good open-source components (Postfix, Apache, Cyrus IMAP, OpenLDAP, OpenSSL) preconfigured to work well with one another, plus a couple of proprietary components: YaST2 for graphical administration, and SkyrixGreen for integrated scheduling and group discussions (shared folders). Client access from any OS, including but not limited to webmail. A full-functional trial version (lacking only "maintenance") is available for US $20 at http://www.suse.com/openexchange/slox_eval_form.ht ml . Sites are known to scale well to at least 1,000 users per site. The largest deployment yet known (March 2003) is 1,900 users.

• Bynari Insight Server, http://www.bynari.net/ . Server end is Linux-based. Intended as a plug-compatible replacement for MS-Exchange Server, based on POP3, IMPA, SMTP, and LDAP, but also with full support for all the special, proprietary MS-Exchange Server RPC-based protocols for group discussion, scheduling, contact management, task lists, etc., when used with MS-Outlook clients. Review: http://linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6734

• Bynari InsightConnector, http://www.bynari.net/ . Extensions that load into MS-Outlook clients to let them perform MS-Exchange-type functions (scheduling, contact-management, public folders) without needing an MS-Exchange server, using only open-standard IMAP, SMTP, and LDAP servers, instead.

• Samsung Contact (formerly HP Openmail), http://samsungcontact.com/en/ . Server end can be Linux-based (or Solaris/AIX). Based on SMTP, IMAP, POP3, LDAP. Supports proprietary protocols for e-mail, scheduling, etc. native to Samsung's Contact client (which is available on Linux and Win32). Webmail access. Implements Microsoft's (documented, for a change) MAPI protocol for scheduling, public folders, offline folders.

• Oracle Collaboration Suite, http://www.oracle.com/ip/deploy/cs/ . Formerly Steltor CorporateTime, http://www.steltor.com/, until that firm's recent acquisition by Oracle. (That product is said to have emerged from Netscape Calendar.) Does IMAP, POP3, SMTP, E-mail, real-time conferences, voicemail, scheduling. Apparently implements all of the special, proprietary MS-Exchange Server RPC-based protocols for group discussion, scheduling, contact management,

I think they forgot one: www.bynari.net. Their blurb from the front page:

Bynari offers an enterprise email server that scales from Intel platforms to IBM mainframes, providing world-class reliability for hundreds of thousands of users. Bynari significantly reduces the hardware, software, and administrative costs with managing email systems by consolidating email servers. With no end-user retraining, Bynari provides seamless interoperability with all versions of Outlook and other email clients.

Insight Connector is a Microsoft Outlook plug-in that allows full Outlook groupware capabilities connecting to InsightServer instead of an Exchange server. With Insight Connector installed, together with InsightServer, Outlook users will be able to do such tasks as Calendar sharing, Folder sharing, Sharing of Contacts, Setting Appointments/Tasks, and other group colaborative type tasks. Insight Connector allows Outlook to function on more robust and reasonably priced servers.

Anyone using this?

Apparently you've never heard of Bynari InsightServer...

** DISCLAIMER: I don't work for them; I just heard some guys talking about their experiences with it on my LUG's mailing list.

About InsightServer

InsightServer is a Linux based email server utilizing open source components to provide a highly reliable, scalable, and cost effective email solution for customers of all sizes.

We built InsightServer to facilitate complete messaging and collaboration capabilities within the company. InsightServer supports all the standard protocols. It provides unusually robust features and functions like backup and recovery tools, server redundancy, migration tools, and resource management.

Bynari's Intel Platform edition of InsightServer runs on a variety of support platforms including IBM xSeries, Dell PowerEdge, Compaq Proliants, HP Netservers, Gateway Workgroup Servers and numerous products from "Whitebox" manufacturers.


What is InsightServer

* Messaging, Collaboration, and Web Server
* Directory Services, Calendaring, Collaboration
* Linux distribution agnostic
* Runs on IBM eServer platforms: xSeries, iSeries, & zSeries
* Internet Mail Server (SMTP, IMAP, POP3) & MAPI
* Internet Mail Spec Compliant
* Interoperable with all versions of Microsoft Outlook(97-2002), Netscape, Unix and other leading Linux mail clients
* Based on Enterprise model architecture

Apparently you've never heard of Bynari InsightServer...

** DISCLAIMER: I don't work for them; I just heard some guys talking about their experiences with it on my LUG's mailing list.

About InsightServer

InsightServer is a Linux based email server utilizing open source components to provide a highly reliable, scalable, and cost effective email solution for customers of all sizes.

We built InsightServer to facilitate complete messaging and collaboration capabilities within the company. InsightServer supports all the standard protocols. It provides unusually robust features and functions like backup and recovery tools, server redundancy, migration tools, and resource management.

Bynari's Intel Platform edition of InsightServer runs on a variety of support platforms including IBM xSeries, Dell PowerEdge, Compaq Proliants, HP Netservers, Gateway Workgroup Servers and numerous products from "Whitebox" manufacturers.


What is InsightServer

* Messaging, Collaboration, and Web Server
* Directory Services, Calendaring, Collaboration
* Linux distribution agnostic
* Runs on IBM eServer platforms: xSeries, iSeries, & zSeries
* Internet Mail Server (SMTP, IMAP, POP3) & MAPI
* Internet Mail Spec Compliant
* Interoperable with all versions of Microsoft Outlook(97-2002), Netscape, Unix and other leading Linux mail clients
* Based on Enterprise model architecture

Why is this a problem ?
They will be looking at a smooth transition, not a big bang, some people may continue with Windows boxes for a long time. These and those moved to Linux are still going to want to arrange meetings/... with each other. The trouble is that the MAPI protocol used in not known and there are no open source clients/servers.

• To do this the Linux groupware clients need to talk to Exchange. The only way that I know of doing this is with Ximian connector: which is proprietary and costs $1,449 for a 25 pack.
• Later on when the exchange servers are replaced, the remaining windows clients will need to talk to the replacement, the only way of doing this is with bynari which is a proprietary product.

We need to reverse engineer the current M$ MAPI protocols so that open source clients/servers can be written. The key to the success of this project is going to be seamless continuity of end user work while desktop and server machines are migrated one by one.

Does anyone know of tools other than ximian connector and bynari ?

OpenOffice does the .doc, .xls & .ppt well enough. Evolution/kmail does the email well enough (smtp). ``Well enough'' means can interoperate in terms of protocol and file/wire formats.

Check out InsightConnector. You can try it out for 14 days, pretty cheap and it works with the Cyrus IMAP server.

Lotus notes

oracle collaboration

Bynari InsightServer.

There are others.

The German government is funding the development of such Exchange/Outlook type groupware via the KDE people. You've also got Evolution as an Outlook replacement, and Oracle has a groupware server that Outlook can plug right into, and it has all of Exchange's functionality. Plus, there's the Bynari solution, which also replicates Exchange's functionality.

There are more an more alternatives every day.

Bynari's InsightConnector essentially does this: adapting IMAP to MAPI, where Exchange elements become imap boxes and messages.

Quite clever, IMHO..

see my other post
Wrt Outlook robust-ness, it's recommended to upgrade your Outlook to the latest 'service pack' to avoid problems there.
Also, the configuration changes to Outlook are not very straight-forward to do (unless familiar with it).

Server-side Exchange features such as document flow (which is hardly ever used) are missing.

All the traditional features such as shared folders, meeting requests, appointments, free/buzy , synchronisation with PDA, and such are there...

Check out there website at www.bynari.net or download a demo ISO image

Am I saying its no good? No; we haven't seen it yet. It's not an Exchange replacement. It looks like Bynari.

Bynari however, does produce an actual replacement for Exchange, especially when coupled with the InsightConnector for Outlook.

Also, the former HP OpenMail now owned by Samsung and called Samsung Contact appears to support MAPI as well, so that could integrate with Outlook and have all those groupware/calendaring features.

And last, a Dutch company called ConnecTUX has created a Linux-based server application called Team-Link that integrates completely with Outlook and mimics all Exchange features. (Both sites in Dutch unfortunately.)

So plenty of alternatives. But I agree, this OpenExchange, is not one of them.

I know this post is somewhat redundant, but I think it's worth noting, that the short term solution will be the Bynari Plugin for Outlook but the longer term solution will be a separate stand-alone open source client for windows. Which will replace Outlook completly.

WONDERFUL news.

Bye egghat.

I work for a government agency in Arizona and we are ditching Exchange next weekend for a system built from open source components.

We expect other government agencies in Arizona and beyond to do the same in the near future.

FreeBSD
Courier-IMAP
OpenLDAP
qmail
Sympa
S quirrelMail
SunOne Directory/Calendar server

This can be done. The calendar was the hardest thing to find a replacement for.

Take a look at:
Replacing Exchange HOWTO and QVCS.

The first document is what inspired us over a year ago to begin this project. The second project is very similar to what we ended up with. We will be producing a HOWTO next month on how we did this.

Replacing Exchange is not that difficult if you understand how email works and how Exchange is cobbled together. We chose to separate the Exchange functions and put them in a web browser driven context.

The big task you will have is to fight the user conception, built through marketing and fud, that somehow Exchange/Outlook is synonymous with email in the same way that some people see AOL as synonymous with the Internet.

You will have to fight like hell for an Exchange replacement. A replacement has to be feature-rich, a replacement better be secure, and most importantly a replacement needs to be more reliable than Exchange.

If you can do your homework on these issues you should be able to get PHB and upper management to buy in.

The magical thing that Microsoft, and to a lesser extent Lotus and Novell, managed to do is transform the function of email into the monstrousity that Exchange/Outlook is and convince people to lay down gobs of cash money for something which fundamentally is no different than any other email system - its job is to deliver email.

We got tired of Microsoft sticking it to us for licensing. We got tired of virus after virus. We got tired of Exchange problems with no apparent reason and (worse) no apparent cure. We got tired of having our data held hostage by Exchange.

The big question, for you bofhs out there, is whether you can/will do something about Exchange. You can sit idly by while Exchange craps on you again and again or you can do something about it.

I think this used to be true. I thought this, too, until I started looking around yesterday.

Apparently, it is possible to open Exchange up to third-party e-mail clients; and, as others noted, Ximian has a connector. I'm trying to get Pine to use an Exchange server and it looks pretty easy.

There is even a product for using Outlook clients with Linux servers.

Try Bynari as an Exchange alternative...

There's a Texas company that makes a plugin for Outlook, called InsightConnector, that allows it to do all its groupware features over any IMAP4 server with ACL support. It's not OSS, and it's not free, but it's supposed to be cheaper than MS Exchange.

You can find a review of it here.
The company's website is here.

The practically have to have experience in moving servers like this to have any business. You might try contacting them and seeing what they cost.

Want a standards-based SMTP server with server-side calendaring that works nicely with Outlook and the plethora of email clients? You want this affordable Intel based application!

Want a standards-based SMTP server with server-side calendaring that works nicely with Outlook and the plethora of email clients? You want this affordable Intel based application!

There is an exchange equivalent that runs on Linux: http://www.bynari.net/bynari/insightent.html. It's not OSS, but it runs on OSS, so at least you don't have to buy Windows. This particular page reads like they want to sell you the whole box, but it must be possible to buy just the server software.

Actually it is free, as in beer, at the moment. As you can see on this page: "Insight 2.9 is now free for a limited time. This is a full functioning version and does not have an expiration date."

and

"This offer is good now and until further notice."
The freeness seems a little precarious, though.

Your obviously missed something while you were "looking". Use Outlook client with Bynari InsightConnector... Use ANY IMAP server to replace Exchange with COMPLETE FUNCTIONALITY. Exchange's little secret is that everthing is done in email.

If you inisist on using outlook, there was a solution: OpenMail but HP decided to kill it. Which, btw, everyone is assuming it's Sun they are replacing (a safe assumption) but with goofy I'll-do-a-merger-to-keep-my-job-and-blame-company- problmes-on-someone-other-that-I Carly at the helm of HP, I wouldn't be surpised if it's HP they need to drop.

Bynari is another calendaring solution that has been mentioned before for Linux. No, it's not open source, free, or even just like exchange; but it works, is virus free, etc.

As for point 2, I've done the virus thing with a cheesy script on each system, and other such lame sysadmin duct tape approaches taking care of windoze network unfriendly boxes.

Your primary point, the question, "just what are they replacing" is a good one and your conclusions are reasonable. My problem is what I sense inbetween the lines. Your point is that exchange makes outlook really easy to deal with and win2k server takes care of windoze boxes easier. Well, ya got me there. Yup, Linux isn't as good as windows in dealing with windows non-sense. I don't suspect it ever will be, EVEN if they were to play nice as Mr. Stallman suggested oh so long ago. You are suggesting that linux will never be ready for IT b/c IT runs windows clients. This doesn't have to be. Things in a linux server/win client enterprise would have to be different. In some ways it would be better and some ways not. There are of course growing pains - I'm sure you're one of the millions that have had to suffer through years and years of M$'s growing pains, mistakes and lies. Now, "their solutions" (ahem) are mostly workable on few commodity (cough, cough) systems - such as the most expensive Intel systems you could buy. That's one approach. Another might be to buy an old unix server (say, a Sun E450) and centralize each offices services to one reliable system.

My point is that the gap between windows and unix/linux is getting smaller in some ways. Unix apps can be easily recompiled to run (slowly) on your pc, and that win box can now pretend to be a newtwork server. Large unix apps can now sort-of slowly run on small linux installations. But the windows boxes can't scale the same was as unix apps, and certianly can't scale as far and will never scale as big. They are different things, and it is very disingenuous for you to say that unix/linux will never cut it in IT b/c it's not windows. Unix can now go big or go small, and it always goes smart and dresses in style. Don't expect to run a better network with out some effort and growing pains - and if you're running windows, always expect to spend a lot more. This why they are replacing unix and you can bet that if this pilot project goes well, windows will be phased out.

1) How do you work around the complete lack of server-side productivity software on Linux servers? By deploying Exchange, you can make scheduling a meeting as easy as sending an email with a time and having everyone click to confirm the meeting, which is then added to everyone's calendar. There is no solution like this without using Exchange (and I've looked.)

You can do this a couple of ways now. One is to use a Outlook with a good IMAP server. Then you configure the clients to publish their free/busy times via WebDAV. This is built into Outlook and works pretty transparently. No costly software on the server at all! This doesn't have all the features that Exchange has, but covers the biggies.

Another more complete approach is to use the software from Bynari. Complete support for Outlook with Unix servers.

2) How do you work around the lack of group policy controls in SAMBA? By this I mean forcing a computer to have the most up-to-date anti-virus software when it logs on to the domain; mapping network drives automatically; downloading OS patches automatically through a local server. AFAIK, Samba can't do any of this as well as a Windows 2000 Server can. And what about Active Directory? LDAP isn't as cohesive a solution if you are running Windows clients.

My impression was that you can use policies with Samba. You just need to use a Windows box to generate the files. Samba also allows you to run scripts on the clients to do whatever you need them to. The scripts can run based on computer name, login name, or domain name. Can be very powerful.

The other conclusion I must draw is that the companies that are migrating to Linux as a workgroup server (i.e. replacing Windows NT/2000 Server with Linux) did not have a cohesive Windows network in the first place. Unfortunately, Linux is nowhere near a solution to Exchange, and it's perhaps 25% of the way to replacing a Windows 2000 primary domain controller's capabilities.

Go to http://www.bynari.net/ and check out their solutions. Very nice.

Samba can work as a PDC quite easily now. It can also allow Unix boxes to join into the domain. Samba takes care of the SID to UID mapping. Very slick. The only thing they don't have completely done right now is Kerberos/AD support. That is coming in Samba 3.0. You can start playing with it right now.

So what servers is Merrill Lynch migrating? Linux does have its core competencies -- web servers; application servers; network storage to some degree -- but they didn't mention what part of the infrastructure they were replacing. I would thus take the words "companywide" with a grain of salt in this case.

Cisco runs all the printers in the company off of Linux. So Linux *can* do file and print quite well.

BTW, you might want to check out a little program called "Directory Administrator." It's a program that manages users in a LDAP directory. The latest version also takes care of managing Samba accounts in LDAP. You get Active Directory without Microsoft.

It is not free, but very reasonably priced.

You can also find a brief summary of it here.

It is not free, but very reasonably priced.

You can also find a brief summary of it here.

Binary claim they they have a client Insight

You can try out the 2.6 for free i think. The client sucks though, allthough it works with exchange, the last time i tried it.

Anyone here use it? Is it any good?

What's your goal here? Are you totally unable to consider a non-Linux server, or do you just want to avoid maintaining an extra OS? If the latter, Domino is not a good trade-off. You'd be better off getting an old Sun box -- easier to learn the differences between Solaris and Linux than to learn all the weird groupware features of Domino.

You might also check out Bynari

It is interesting that there's there little commercial activity in this area. A Google search reveals a lot of people working on standards, etc. But the serious commercial products are iPlanet (Solaris and NT, and when they get divorced from Netscape, I bet they drop NT) Exchange (NT only of course) and Domino.

On the one hand, you lucked out because IBM is heavily into Linux these days. On the other hand, IBM couldn't just write their communication/scheduling servers from scratch. Instead they had to salvage all the money they wasted on Notes by turning its server into a general purpose monster.

Bynari knows how to interface with Outlook.

Outlook-like apps for Linux were discussed on Slashdot a few years ago http://slashdot.org/askslashdot/98/10/02/1729257.s html, and that discussion may have some (dated) info that might help.

It's not free or OSS, but HP has OpenMail http://www.openmail.com/cyc/om/00/index.html "...a UNIX and Linux based messaging and collaboration solution, currently used by 60% of global 1000 companies..." which also support LookOut calendaring.

A google search for "open source" "exchange replacement" turned up "The Exchange Server Replacement HOWTO" and Nick Petreley's commentary on why HP is dumping OpenMail, in which he comments "that HP OpenMail [is] a better Exchange than Microsoft Exchange".

An earlier slashdot story talked about an up-and-coming replacement for Exchange from Ximian , but I can't find anything on their site.

Bynari (www.bynari.net) makes a product called Insight Server which, while not free, less costly than Exchange and runs on Linux. Again, no experience with it. Links on their site point to something called tradeclient (http://sourceforge.net/projects/tradeclient or http://tradeclient.sourceforge.net/) that is a Linux client for their Insight server (don't know/can't tell if it'll do Exchange server as well), and something called TradeServer shows up on their site, which is unfortunately difficult to find stuff on.

I believe Bynari makes a client and server replacement software system. I've never actually tested it out, but they've been selling their software for a while, and seem to be tight with IBM.

Try Insight from bynari[bynari.net]. They make both a client (Insight) and a server (Insight Server). The client can talk to an Exchange server, and includes calendar, addressbook, and email, just like outlook, but on Linux. The server is feature-compatible with Exchange, and is built on exim, openldap, and cyrus IMAP/POP. Outlook clients can talk to the Insight server just fine, even transparently. I am demoing it right now, and it might just replace Exchange here, and allow me to run Linux exclusively.

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

Of course, Bynari also runs on Linux/x86 and Solaris/sparc, for folks with a more typical environment.

It seems that Bynari's TradeXch no longer exists. They renamed the product to "Insight". If you look here, you'll see that they also removed the native Exchange Server support, so it too, now only functions as a standards compliant MUA.

I'm not too terribly surprised to see that the proxy that was used was removed as it had lots of issues depending on the version of CDO and MAPI that was installed on the machine that runs the proxy. Furthermore, lots of people just didn't like the idea of running a proxy. Between the hard sale of a proxy and the problematic support issues, it makes complete sense for them to focus on just making a good groupware product. While I haven't seen the latest, I suspect that it has lots of improvements since i last saw it.

As I understand it, the story about that city using Linux as it's desktop, is using Insite (servers and clients) as part of their solution.