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Start here - http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/biztools/article.php/10730_3932591_2/Top-5-Open-Source-Alternatives-to-Microsoft-Exchange.htm

A 1000+ users isn't that many nowadays. Sogo, Zarafa, Zimbra should manage that without too much trouble. I'd check for the other groupware / calendar features that your users depend on before seriously considering a switch.

And there's always hosted mail / hosted Exchange. I think some of these are really running Exchange on the backend but so long as they provide the features and fully support Outlook or whatever mail client you're using, I don't think it matters.

Here's a vid from Sogo demonstrating Outlook compatibility, narrated by a very boring robotic voice - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hcBSB4Kxww#t=292

As this sbc article details, those left behind find it "less personally fulfilling to do their work".
So how exactly is this a good thing, unless you plan on having no office at all - which is not quite feasible.

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cool customizeable social bookmarkign widget for your site

goto google.com. type in "linux file server". 3rd link down. http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/webmaster/ar ticle.php/3362001 or just click file server during setup. done and done.

The real problem is some ISPs are realizing the Internet can be used to compete with some of their other services, such as telephone service. Some ISPs have already been caught trying to block Vonage.

The Internet was paid for with tax dollars. Everybody should benefit from it, even if that means your competitors can use your portion of it.

http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/webmaster/ar ticle.php/3498116

It gives pointers to various offerings, including one-time passwords, hardware tokens, smart cards, and biometrics.

The best way to fight back is to forget about purchasing printers that uses cartridges, use laser printers. Although the initial cost is higher, it is much cheaper in the long run. See the following article for cost figures.

http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/testdrive/ar ticle.php/3521141

4.1 Does this printer work with free software?
http://www.linuxprinting.org/minolta-faq.html#q_4_ 1
No. This printer does not use ZjStream, which is a JBIG based language. It looks like an ESC based language with compression. Therefore, the foo2zjs driver will fail.

The compression is inferior to the 2300DL, however, it should not be difficult to create a driver. Good luck.

http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/testdrive/ar ticle.php/2202421
the W indicates that, like some low-cost monochrome lasers, it's a Windows-based (95, 98SE, Me, 2000, XP) printer, using the operating system's own interface instead of a Linux- and Mac-compatible language like PCL or PostScript.

Well, you'll have to start thinking less like a programmer that wants to do something fun and more like a manager that wants to do the best thing for the lowest cost.

That's not to say your case is hopeless. There are real pros and cons associated with going down either road. See, for example, this.

If like me you found yourself asking "what the heck is 802.11g?", this site was pretty helpful.

There are many, and there have been many ways to utilize fiber for years. As I indicated above, a NIC is not a NIC, I have found the Tigon 3 to be most effective at keeping utilization low under load. If you think a D-Link is going to perform, you would be mistaken, I would venture to guess that in the right situation, with the right packet size, and the right amount of ingress, a more capable 100 mbit controller from 3COM or Intel would outperform a D-Link (which uses a national semiconductor ASIC I believe, that's a guess, but I wont bother to find out because I don't care about D-Link).

I also touched on ingress traffic and live lock in interrupt driven kernels. It's a real problem. Also, speed is relative to packet size (jumbo packets), interrupts coalescence and tcp checksumming offload.

I find that fiber's performance does not denigrate at all as you approach maximum limit in length. I find that Copper is sensitive to RF, and, while gigabit does not have this notion of crossover because it uses all 4 pairs, I hate the idea of crossovers at all (most GE cards now do auto MDX for 10/100).

As I also indicated, there are usually fiber uplinks on switches, as seen here. It has 48 ports, and two fiber ports. [$1300 bucks]. This is a typical use, as is suggested by the design. Clearly it is wise to use the 10/100 to connect to got to workstations, and here, we see a switch with 24 10/100/1000 ports (Cu), and uplink ports, which can be SM or MM fiber. [$2300]

I would say one would use fiber to connect switches to one another, basically deprecating "spanning" style switches, where one must get proprietary cables and whatnot. This gives the flexibility of moving switches far away, and these switches above have options for single mode which can drastically increase range, making cross-corporate-campus communications as trivial as laying the fiber down and very cheap compared to the days of old when repeaters were used.

I work with a 10/100/1000 combo copper fiber switch, and Alteon 180, and we use that to aggregate switches that span out copper to the lab of machines we use to test various things. I find fiber a joy to work with, and tapping fiber connections is far easier. The aforementioned switch would cost in and about $15,000 new, but on Ebay who knows. Clearly fiber to the desktop is not the intent of using fiber, but not using for backbones is the right choice. Flexible transceivers, cables which are priced right when you want to go far distances, and it isn't subject to RF noise, and is easy to tap - and cheap. The taps for tapping single or multimode fiber [70/30 split] are about $600. The taps for gigabit copper are way over that price (this just came out - its neat, and cutting edge, but according to hearsay not at all easy to do because of the 4 channel system GigE Cu uses).

So fiber switches are expensive. But they are good, the can aggregate lots of things from far away, and they are generally newer, always managed. The cheapest 100% fiber switches are in the $4000 range, usually starting at 8 ports.

So is fiber for gamers? No. Is fiber a cheap way to hook up your client machines or low bandwidth servers? No. Is it useful to span switches distances near and far, and to allow certain high volume servers excellent access to bandwidth, and be tappable easily and cheaply, yes! I have been very pleased with both the original AceNIC and the Tigon 3 controllers, and the Alteon switches.

Fiber is essentially a distance giver, and most of the NIC I pointed out in my original post have the same ASIC for both the GigE Cu and the Fiber rendition of the card, but I have found that fiber is more reliable, easier to push to the theoretical maximum speeds for a given packet size. I would probably buy going forward Cu 10/100/1000 switches, and span them with fiber uplinks and aggregate them into a fiber switch and give critical routers and servers access to that aggregate switch.

Another thing to pay attention to when buying switches, is the switching fabric. A lot of cheaper switches out there cant handle every single port going full duplex and 1000 mbit. This is where the fabric becomes the theoretical limiter. Be careful of garbage brands, stick to Intel, 3Com, Sun, Cisco, Extreme, Juniper, Foundry and beefy vendors. Intel and 3COM may be seen as cheesy and cheap to hang with the more scaleable vendors, but they build decent stuff for basic use.