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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.

Why would you suggest they upgrade to an abandoned product? That'd be worse than sticking with Groupwise.

Samsung Contact is a really sweet messaging server. And it gets next to no marketing, as far as I can tell, which is too bad, 'cause it does all the Exchange-only crap that Outlook supports.

It's called contact from Samsung.

It is a complete enterprise grade exchange server replacement that is excellent. It beats all comers as near as I can tell.

All features and functions, fully compatible, very mature.

http://www.samsungcontact.com/en/

Look at Samsung Contact
http://www.samsungcontact.com/

I actually do believe Samsung has the resources.

sayonara to their medical instruments division, their measurements division, OpenMail , MPE/iX and the HP3000 line

Samsung bought OpenMail off of HP - after HP decided to kill it. Samsung ran OpenMail and liked it so much.. ."they bought the company."

Samsung will happily sell you a copy.

Samsung Contact

Check out Samsung Contact. It's not OpenSource, but it is a good alternative to MS Exchange. Samsung Contact runs on Linux. http://www.samsungcontact.com/en/product/
Linux Magazine has writen about this issue. Take a look at Linux Magazine Issue 29: April 2003

SamsungContact
SuSE Openexchange Server
Oracle Collaboration Suite
and
Lotus Notes

are viable products that don't rely on AD and MSFT-products.

I use qmail for myself, but it's not something for people who need calendaring.
Disclaimer: my company re-sells SuSE's product.

• 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,

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.

• Samsung CONTACT
• Calmeno
• SuSE Linux Openexchange Server

Wait, I thought what was stopping Linux was the lack of a proper email/calendaring/contacts solution (server and client side, nicely integrated) that actually works.

Samsung Contact. It works. Server runs on Unix variants or Linux (currently RH and SuSE). You can use their PC client, their Linux client, their web client, or Outlook 98/2k/XP (with the Samsung MAPI drivers). I've been using it on linux since it was HP Openmail. Back then, there were some issues with MAPI driver functionality, but it worked pretty well. Since Samsung has gotten their hands on it, it is fantastic, no reservations whatsoever.

No, it's not free (beer/speech). Until someone is able to do this under some sort of OSS license, I'll gladly pay for Samsung Contact.

Samsung Contact has a sweet webmail client and is supposedly very exchange-compatible.

Looked at SamsungContact ?. It's HP's OpenMail, further developed.

• Corp can keep Outlook on the Windoze-Client
• Geeks can use the Linux-Client
• migration from exchange possible

the reason Windows server software is present at most companies is ... because of Exchange

Someone already mentioned Samsung Contact, but there's also a recent announcementof an independent TCO study, comparing Contact/OpenMail with Exchange and Notes. The study includes a spreadsheet (Excel :-( ho hum) so you can tweak the model to match your own environment.

r.

Samsung Contact (was HP OpenMail), anyone?

r.

admin: well errr , lets see .. aaahh. no ..

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.

There was and is a unix-based server that works like Exchange. It can use Outlook as a client, and can also use Java-based and Web-based clients, as well as other Unix mail clients.

HP developed it and used to sell it as Openmail, but they don't sell it any more.

Now it's been picked up by Samsung. Here's the FAQ.

There was and is a unix-based server that works like Exchange. It can use Outlook as a client, and can also use Java-based and Web-based clients, as well as other Unix mail clients.

HP developed it and used to sell it as Openmail, but they don't sell it any more.

Now it's been picked up by Samsung. Here's the FAQ.

An open source replacement for Exchange's calendar store could eliminate a lot of Windows Server installations. Thousands of businesses are tied to Windows Server because Exchange works exclusively with Windows Server and Outlook works (almost) exclusively with Exchange.

Exchange calendaring replacements have been developed by HP and Steltor, and acquired by Samsung and Oracle, respectively. Those products generally don't integrate with Outlook's calendar as well as Exchange does, but they prove the viability of the Exchange-replacement market, and an open source product would have a big pricing advantage over those commercial alternatives.

The tough part is persuading the end-users to switch from Outlook to a new calendar client. If IT can do this, the odds are good that IT could convince the users to switch from Microsoft Office to Star Office.

Maybe it's premature to short-sell MSFT, but this initiative could be a crack in the wall.

Try Samsungcontact (formerly known as HP openmail) www.samsungcontact.com, it's a fine Exchange replacement that runs on Linux.

(I am not affiliated with Samsung, bla bla bla)

Let's say, just for the sake of discussion that anthing that is POP3/LDAP and .. Outlook compatible is pretty close. The-mailserver-formely-known-as-openmail from HP is now sold by Samsung as samsungcontact. No, it's not Opensource (yet anyway) but it is a perfect drop-in replacement dor Exchange, a lot cheaper to buy and own. It runs on linux, solaris, HP-UX, AIX and more. For some reason not many people seem to know about this product. Openmail was used by lager organisations like banks and such until it was taken off the market by HP (rumor has it under pressure from Redmond, but that would be unfair ofcourse ;-).

(note: I have no affiliation with Samsung whatsoever)

Check out Samsung Contact. It used to be HP OpenMail. HP discontinued it, and Samsung bought it, because they were using it heavily internally. I think it does everything that Exchange does. There are a few nits with Outlook that make it look a little different than an Exchange server, but even those seem to be getting worked out. They're also fully standards-based.

Have you considered Samsung Contact (formerly HP Openmail)? As far as Exchange replacements it should be a viable alternative. Runs on Solaris, Linux, HP-UX or AIX on the server side and supports pretty much everything Exchange does on the client side (and of course it supports most other email clients).

Of course, if you dont need a feature for feature match with Exchange there are unlimited cheap alternatives for mail servers.

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.)

HP Openmail (recently taken over by Samsung Contact) does EXACTLY this, no Exchange required. We use it with MAPI drivers for Outlook 2000, and our users love it (because they can use Outlook) and I love it (because, well, no Exchange). You didn't look very hard.

Belloc

To set up your Free/Busy information

I don't know how many times I have to say this to the people who say "We don't need frickin' Exchange, because OSS can do IMAP/LDAP/FTP with Outlook", so I'll say it once more, slowly:

** FREE/BUSY IS NOT SHARED CALENDARING. **

While you're trying to schedule a meeting using free/busy, ask yourself this: "What is the guy who I'm trying to schedule a meeting with doing at the times when his free/busy info says he's busy?" Is he flexible then? Is he on a conference call with a vendor that could be rescheduled at any time? Or is it his daughter's piano recital that cannot, under any circumstances, be rescheduled?"

Free/busy tells you, well, when someone is free or when they are busy. That's it, and nothing more. It is not shared calendaring. Openmail does shared calendaring with Outlook, more or less just like Exchange. You can actually see the other person's calendar (if they let you). You can even do group calendaring using Bulleting Boards! If you refuse to use Exchange, and you want your groupware to run on UNIX, and your clients insist on using Outlook on the desktop, then Openmail (soon-to-be Samsung Contact) is really the only way to go.

Keep an eye on the Samsung information page to stay up-to-date on the progress of the HP-to-Samsung Openmail/Contact transfer.

Belloc
Happy Openmail-on-Linux customer since 2000.