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It's up on Novell's site here; they're doing a big migration push right now.

That would be Novell GroupWise
It's been around for at least a decade, back when I used to work with it it was powerful if somewhat idosyncratic and odd to administer - a mailbox simply would not work until you did a rebuild on it and I never found out why.
For the record ZenWorks is also way cool.

Exchange has already been emulated in OSS:
Take a look here.
The only problem is that Evolution runs only on Linux at the moment. But if you're going all OSS what does that matter?
Though have a look at http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/17/ 190204

Poseidon, I'm sorry to hear that your first experience with Linux was so horrible. I can see why you're so convinced that Linux is worthless, and I will admit that Linux has problems, but what saddens me is that you hit every shitty thing about Linux all at once and now you're missing out on something that could have been very awesome.

The tempation here is to say "your first mistake was..." but that's not right. It wasn't your fault. You got hosed. You were introduced into Linux in what might actually be the single worst possible way. I believe the proper way to phrase what I want to say is "the first thing your friend should have told you is..."

1. Linux has a learning curve even for techies, and MythTV uses just about ALL of it, every piece of your hardware, networking, shell scripts, databases, cron jobs, user management, filesystem management. Installing Myth can be a huge project even nerds who have been using Linux for years.
2. Linux's biggest shortcoming (and it looks like your biggest frustration) is that it doesn't support all hardware. Some works great. Some works OK. And some is never going to work no matter how many lists you scour and how many times you beat your head agains the wall. It's true and it sucks. But it's not necessarily Linux's fault. It's mostly because Linux is still an underdog and most hardware companies don't take the time to write Linux drivers for their hardware, and they don't trust the open-source community enough to hand over specs that would allow us to write our own drivers. This is very much a problem for things like accelerated video drivers, TV tuners, and especially wireless network cards. All of which are -surprise!- major components of a MythTV system. Expect this to change as Linux gets more popular, but for now... your friend should have helped you get started on researching what hardware would be most compatible before you ever spent a dime on it.
3. Because Linux is open and flexible... everyone out there is customizing it to their own uses. This is a good thing, but it does increase the learning curve. You got burned by this in the worst possible way. Your friend should have told you that Slackware is geared towards GUI-free servers and is notorious for its hands-on, experts-only installation. Exactly the opposite of what you want for MythTV, or even a normal desktop system for that matter. He should have steered you in the direction of KnoppMyth, or at least Mandrake.

I feel your pain. Linux and I had a very rocky start. Three years ago I tried it a few times and dropped it because I couldn't get my sound card to work, I didn't have the patience to dual-boot, and I was on dialup. Eight months ago I tried again and things were different. I am in LOVE and I am never going back. I am in total control of my computer, and I don't have to worry about spyware or adware ever again. I've even set up my own Myth box and I love it. Now whenever I use a friend's windows box I'm reminded how awesome it is to have a computer that knows that it works for me and isn't trying to sell me anything. So I hope you try again sometime, Poseiden. You just might find out why we zealots are so zealous.

To sum up... My advice for anyone trying Linux for the first time...

1. Read up on different distributions before you try one. I hear Suse is really easy to get started on.
2. Install it on a secondary machine, or have a roommate's/spouse's computer handy so you can jump back to a familiar interface to jump online and look things up.
3. Have broadband. Linux is extremely internet-oriented. Configuring your networking, staying up to date, and looking up answers to questions are all much easier with broadband.
4. If your distribution offers a Live CD, try that first to see how compatible the hardware is. And if you're

Why Does Everyone Think Novell Still Sucks?

Why Does Everyone Think Novell Still Sucks?

http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/11507. html

No .iso's to download? Another strike. Ya, I'm a free beer kinda guy.

So I guess that this is news for you...

Yeah, but 2/3 of those sites are built on table-based layouts (old school methods). If you're reading a CSS book or already know CSS (for creating layouts), then you're not doing table-based layout.

Not to raise the hair on your back, but I wouldn't call any of those sites "good design". While they might be very usable and well-structured (not the markup), it doesn't take long to realize that they weren't created by somebody with a background in graphic design. Just compare to any of the sites in the CSS Vault.

Or if you want a similar theme, check out Red Hat or Suse (Novell).

I just took a closer look at the Open Source Web Design site, I like that idea. I can't help but think that they need to implement one of their templates on their own site.

SuSE also has a PPC distribution, but I get the impression it is geared more towards IBM's PPC based servers. At any rate, here is some information from them on the subject of Mac support. There are still other PPC distros that you can investigate the compatibility issues on your own.

Depending on what you'd like to do with linux, running it on a Mini may or may not be right for you. If you just want to tinker, and familiarize yourself with the platform, I'd say go for it. Because you've got one hell of an OS installed along side it with OS X. If you plan to try to get lots of different devices to work under linux on PPC, you're probably better off with x86 hardware.

To sum up, do your homework before you open your wallet. Ask yourself honestly what the purpose of running linux is, and what trade offs you might be willing to make if necessary. And finally, don't forget the OS X factor. You absolutely can't run that on the x86. And it's a really, really nice OS that can also give you an excellent unix experience, albeit a somewhat different experience than linux.

Perhaps, Novell would be willing to let IBM and Sun "copy" this

(ONE time fee!) you can get an entire OS and Kontact

Score one for Novell Marketing - the sorriest bunch of keystone kop nincompoops in the history of high tech marketing.

Now they don't have to explain to people that "No, our Ngage is something completely different."

PS: If anyone can explain to me what the hell "Ngage/xTeNd/Nsure" is supposed to mean [after what, three or four years of trying to decipher it?] then please attach a star to your forehead, and a big, shit-eating, teacher's pet grin to your face.

Access... isn't somebody working on it?

There is Rekall that is also included in Novel's SUSE

You'll find that Evolution provides connectivity to OpenGroupware.org, Groupwise, OpenX-Change, and yes, Microsoft Exchange. This in fact makes it remarkably vendor-neutral, in my opinion. Cheers, Michael

Maybe a sentence about Evolution would be nice.. or at least a link to a webpage about it

It's a very nice open source Outlook clone.

Here is the official site for it.

Novell has hired Tor Lillqvist... to port Beagle to Windows, and after that.. to port Evolution to Windows

Supported mail protocols include IMAP, POP, SMTP and Authenticated SMTP, as well as Microsoft Exchange 2000 and 2003. Novell GroupWise support is currently in beta

"If Linus is the only person that can change a specific part of the kernel, what good does notifying the world instead of just him do?"

Linus may be the only one who commits patches to the official kernel, but he's not the only one who writes patches.

More importantly, people in a production environment should be running a vendor-provided installation (RHEL, SuSe etc). The company that sold them the operating system and the support should also provide kernel updates, including their own patches if they think the offical ones are not coming through in time.

In other words, having a free (as in beer) GNU/Linux installation means you assume total responsibility for the OS. That includes using the freedom of the software to patch the sources and fix any security issues that arise.

It's called Evolution

So you don't think SuSE is commercial?
http://www.novell.com/products/linuxprofessional/d ownloads/suse_linux/index.html
With a bit delay after starting to sell DVDs, but they release it for free.

Just don't make that mistake of going for an Exchange and Outlook combo. Go with Novell Groupwise instead. In the end you will get the same functionality with fewer viruses.

Now for the application stack. I prefer using Novell's eDirectory as opposed to Microsoft's Active Directory. It'll run on Linux so that's one less Windows server right there. The price is based on a per user basis which comes up to $2 per user! Not a bad price. Tie that in with all your Linux services such as Samba, IMAP server, Postfix with eDirectory using the LDAP protocol. Their password self-service option is pretty enticing as well.

While we're on the topic of Novell and moving away from Windows on servers, look into GroupWise as a messaging server instead of MS Exchange. Again, it runs on Linux as well a bunch of other platforms and has cross platform clients so you're not limited to Windows for end users either.

Now for the application stack. I prefer using Novell's eDirectory as opposed to Microsoft's Active Directory. It'll run on Linux so that's one less Windows server right there. The price is based on a per user basis which comes up to $2 per user! Not a bad price. Tie that in with all your Linux services such as Samba, IMAP server, Postfix with eDirectory using the LDAP protocol. Their password self-service option is pretty enticing as well.

While we're on the topic of Novell and moving away from Windows on servers, look into GroupWise as a messaging server instead of MS Exchange. Again, it runs on Linux as well a bunch of other platforms and has cross platform clients so you're not limited to Windows for end users either.

Now for the application stack. I prefer using Novell's eDirectory as opposed to Microsoft's Active Directory. It'll run on Linux so that's one less Windows server right there. The price is based on a per user basis which comes up to $2 per user! Not a bad price. Tie that in with all your Linux services such as Samba, IMAP server, Postfix with eDirectory using the LDAP protocol. Their password self-service option is pretty enticing as well.

While we're on the topic of Novell and moving away from Windows on servers, look into GroupWise as a messaging server instead of MS Exchange. Again, it runs on Linux as well a bunch of other platforms and has cross platform clients so you're not limited to Windows for end users either.

Now for the application stack. I prefer using Novell's eDirectory as opposed to Microsoft's Active Directory. It'll run on Linux so that's one less Windows server right there. The price is based on a per user basis which comes up to $2 per user! Not a bad price. Tie that in with all your Linux services such as Samba, IMAP server, Postfix with eDirectory using the LDAP protocol. Their password self-service option is pretty enticing as well.

While we're on the topic of Novell and moving away from Windows on servers, look into GroupWise as a messaging server instead of MS Exchange. Again, it runs on Linux as well a bunch of other platforms and has cross platform clients so you're not limited to Windows for end users either.

Upfront statement:
I'm a Student Ambassador to Microsoft, I've been promoting .NET on campus, and am currently not paid for this position. So, in a nutshell, I basically promote the technology because I really like it. However, I think Java's pretty cool too.
My thoughts are that yes, it will definitely work in .NET - I've seen even some grad students putting together a pretty awesome application in C# .NET for a programming competition that was aimed at the health care industry and had great acceptance with the hospital. The development time is quicker (especially in VS.NET), there are definitely security/cryptographic libraries implemented, and there is a huge open-source community built around .NET programming.

Also, the .NET framework has been ported in a large part to *nix with the Mono project and has been used quite successfully in Munich which has recently ported to Linux by a company called Volcker.

I've developed GUI applications in both Java and .NET and .NET was much faster and much cleaner as well. Plus, you can inherit from old C++ classes and leverage existing code/libraries in your new application.

There is a prepackaged installer that even includes the OS. SUSE LINUX Openexchange Server They have a connector for MS Outlook. The price is still a bit more than many small companies can afford.

For the cheapest of the cheapies like me there is Open Xchange, the product that is the basis of SLOX. This is something my company would want to deploy once they get to a stable landmark release.

I'm thinking that it is probably a good idea to jumpstart this project by stealing code from projects such as Kontact and Evolution. I'm guessing the Mozilla Public License is compatible with the GPL, so I doubt there are legal issues.

What about SuSE Openexchange?

Server: Novell's OpenExchange server

Client: Novell Connector

Server: Novell's OpenExchange server

Client: Novell Connector

Novell has developed Connector which is supposed to pull this off, the open source client currently using it is Evolution, but maybe the code can be re-used for this project as well...?

While iFolder is proprietary Novell Pay-thru-the-nose server based software for sharing files between work and home (and anywhere else) they have open sourced a version of this (found here) which would count as P2P software with a perfectly legitimate use, and corporately backed as well.

you sure ? http://www.novell.com/news/press/pressroom/news_br ief/archive/2004/suse_archive/response.html

Novell also has released a wonderful migration checklist of sorts. It's a list of important factors to consider before trying to switch your enterprise to Linux. Thought someone might be interested in it.

Novell also has released a wonderful migration checklist of sorts. It's a list of important factors to consider before trying to switch your enterprise to Linux. Thought someone might be interested in it.

Yeah, Novell/Suse and Red Hat couldn't possibly sell Linux and OSS for money!

"It doesn't seem to want to deal with text files (there is no import feature for the Palm Desktop notepad or memo pad, for example)."

You mean 'in Windows'. In the Linux and UNIX world, there are dozens of choices in how you want to talk to your Palm.

For "text files", nothing beats Plucker when carrying text, ebooks, manuals, HTML pages, HOWTO documents, and other items. The LDP even carries all of their HOWTO documents in Plucker format. Its the only format that is freely available, openly documented, and very extensible.

Just look at how beautiful Plucker is with the PHP documentation as one example...

"Also there seems to be no way to copy arbitrary files to the Palm - all files must be "owned" by an application. With a 256MB SD card I expected to use it to copy files between work and home."

You must mean '...in Windows' again. In the non-Windows side, including OSX, we have pilot-link which talks natively to your Palm and can do all kinds of things that the Windows tools cannot (including operating at 40% faster in some cases).

Commercial companies such as MarkSpace are using pilot-link (the core library of pilot-link anyway) in their commercial product, MissingSync which runs on OSX.

For desktop replacements, PIMs, and other tools, there are dozens of alternatives. Here are several, in no particular order (with Coralized links to protect the bandwidth of the various projects):

• Kpilot
• PilotManager
• J-Pilot
• Evolution (an Outlook clone)
• Multisync

There are many others, but these are the top contenders. They all also rely on the libraries and language bindings provided by pilot-link to communicate with your Palm device.

"Has anyone else noticed these or other shortcomings and have figured out ways around them?"

Yes, stop using Windows. Stop using the featureless proprietary tools provided by these vendors who only listen to their profit margins, not to their userbase.

Seriously

Say what? Here is the page you linked to. And then this is what you said: "On Novell's SuSE Enterprise 9 page they say that it will only cost you $35 for a single-CPU copy of SuSE Enterprise 9."

I'm sorry but that pricing scheme seems pretty simple to me. You made the mistake in assuming that $35 for the Media implied that it included the yearly subscription fee for support as well. Right below that line (notice that you don't need to "hunt forever") it says: "SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 1 server, up to 2 CPUs, per year $349".

Quite a few hardware/software manufacturers (one example: I.B.M.) charge extra for the media. This should be obvious to anyone who has ordered or put together a quote using their price lists.

For the price Redhat's aking, *I* would be willing to provide Redhat's level of support. Every time you call, I'll say "that's not a box-stock instalation on the hardware I have sitting on my desk. If you return to a supported cofiguration and continue to have the problem, I'm willing to help." Meanwhile, SuSE support is genuine support. Comparing the price is irrelevent when you're not comparing equivalent products.

Also, it's worth noting that you're wrong. The pricing page" shows that you can get a media kit for $35 if you won't be using the support - which is something Redhat doesn't offer - and that you can get a one-year supported version for one machine (up to 2 CPUs) for $349. How tough was it to find that page? Well, went to "www.suse.com" (which redirects to the Novell page), clicked on SuSE enterprise, and clicked on "pricing" in the "how to buy" menu. You can get the zenworks management software for $15 electronically delivered, and *that* support is around $900/year on x86.

you shold take a short second look at the site you have linked to:
http://www.novell.com/products/linuxenterpriseserv er/pricing.html
the complete prices are clear: $35 is the price for media.
the complete prices, including support, are:

for X86 and AMD64 and Intel EM64T
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server
1 server, up to 2 CPUs, per year $349
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server
1 server, up to 16 CPUs, per year $899
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server
Additional 8 CPUs for 1 server, per year $579
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server High Performance Computing
1-Node up to 16-CPU, Full-term $270
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server High Performance Computing
1-Node up to 2-CPU, Full-term $135


the prices for other systems are also there. it's not difficult to find that out.

/DATA/PRICELISTS/Pricelists/VLA-CLA/Dec 04/USDec04vla_cla.xls

/DATA/PRICELISTS/Pricelists/VLA-CLA/Dec 04/USDec04vla_cla.xls

Couldn't/Shouldn't Dell look into other Linux server packages? After all, that is the nature of the free market. If Dell drags Red Hat and, say, Turbolinux, or god forbid... SCO... into the fray, that would make the bottom line for companies looking to switch to Linux even more appealing.

See http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2004/10/p r04072.html and http://www.dell.com/novell/

Repeat after me: E-mail clients on Linux are NOT a problem.

* Mutt (console based and unlike PINE its Free and better)
* Evolution (for GNOME)
* KMail (for KDE).
* Sylpheed (for GTK+).
* GNUMail (for GNUstep)
* More at Freshmeat.net > Communications :: Email :: Email Clients (MUA)

Perhaps redundant links here and there, but this is a good overal start. I excluded Thunderbird and Mozilla because those are heavily known already. Also, some of the above clients might run on other Unices, other OSes -- including MacOSX and Windows.

I've used IMAP capable clients to talk to Exchange servers.

I don't use Thunderbird because I find that evolution with its connector provides almost a complete Outlook replacement.

While I haven't used it personally, people have used the old Netscape IMAP mail connection to talk to Exchange servers in a limited fashion (just IMAP, no calendars, etc.) And, before I got some of the connector stuff working, I used the IMAP option within Evolution to talk to the Exchange server.

But Evolution can give you mail+calendars with those MSexChange servers, so that's what I tend to use.

Maybe someday an open source Exchange replacement like Brutus will be sufficiently compatible with Exchange's behavior to be a viable drop-in replacement for small and medium businesses.

Something around 280ish currently in English.

The question is this: how many of these are viable contenders in the market[s] shared by Solaris and Windows?

SuSe, backed by Novel, is a viable contender. Mandrake and Debian are not utterly out of the running. And the multitude of contenders in the wings will leave anyone trying to wipe Linux off the map in a protracted whack-a-mole (or penguin) game. For that matter, the BSD *nix flavors ought not be ruled out ofthe running, although they're more of a long shot and largely non-commercial.

On the other hand, if a time traveller were to call me and tell me that in five years a Linux distribution would wipe out either Windows or Solaris and asked me to guess which distro did it... I'd guess Red Hat. (I'd also guess Solaris.)

Yes, it is called Novell Evolution. It is a groupware client for Linux that does e-mail, calendaring, tasks and contact management. And can work with IMAP, POP, SMTP and Authenticated SMTP, Microsoft Exchange 2000 and 2003 and Novell GroupWise. I use it at work on Linux to work with our MS Exchange 2003 server.

if you are running unix certainly check out evolution.
Originally on of Ximians flag ship products, now part of Novell's linux group.