Ximian Connector 1.0 Available

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Ximian Connector is out! Regardless if you don't like open source and Microsoft playing together this will let me ditch my Win2k box at work! Here is the press release. Of note, MS Exchange 2000 has a nice HTTP interface to it as well, works wonderfully in Galeon." kittenslietome adds a link to the license under which it's released as well: Connector is not Free software, but rather software Ximian hopes will pay for further Free software development.

Comments

Requires Exchange 2000, OWA

[Brento]

There's a big catch: it only works with Exchange 2000 servers, not 5.5, and it requires that the OWA (Outlook via Web) is installed on the Exchange server. Wish my employer wasn't still on 5.5, then it'd be a lot more exciting.

Re:Requires Exchange 2000, OWA

[ethereal]

No, what it does is present your mail and calendar as a web-based interface. So, like hotmail, but also with a calendar app too.

Your local web browser actually does the downloading and parsing of web pages.

Re:Requires Exchange 2000, OWA

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't. It uses Exchange's WebDAV interface, which happens to be enabled and disabled by the same switch as the OWA interface. It doesn't actually use OWA itself.

Opposite Solution

[Yoda2]

There is a new product called InsightConnecter available from Bynari that allows you to replace MS Exchange with a standard IMAP server. This is a good solution for those who are stuck using Outlook, but have access to a Linux server and don't want to use Exchange. It works as an Outlook Add-In and "tricks" Outlook into thinking that the IMAP server is Exchange Server.

It is not free, but very reasonably priced.

You can also find a brief summary of it here.

Can't ditch my Win2k box just yet.

[thesolo]

Unfortunately, even with Ximian Connector, I still can't totally get rid of my Win2k box. Why, you may ask??

NT Authentication

I can use Linux for development, I can use Evolution now to integrate with Outlook, but I still need IE to be able to use my corporate intranet (some of my development work is for intranet applications, so I need to be able to test them). Unfortunately, my company runs IIS on the intranet servers, and only allows NT Challenge/Response for authentication. So, short of trying to get IE running under VMWare/Wine (Which I have not been able to successfully do yet), I'm stuck in Windows.

Does anyone know if there are any other web browsers that can do NT Authentication?? I'm guessing no, since it's a closed Microsoft protocol.

Re:Can't ditch my Win2k box just yet.

[SouthSideMike]

I use Enlightenment, Mozilla, Evolution/Pine every day all day at work and have NO problems connecting to our Windows/IIS servers. The IIS servers that require NT Challenge/Response for authentication are not a problem for me when I access the page it prompts me for my username and password I simply enter domain-name\ntusername on the username line and then enter my NT password on the password line and then I'm in. Never a problem. And I have no problems accessing any NT shares, I have all of the "necessary" NT shares mounted via SMBFS and have no issues using them either.

Re:Can't ditch my Win2k box just yet.

[Jeremy Allison - Sam]

> The Kerberos-like authentication is apparently > much stronger, but there don't seem to be any > open implementations of it yet.

Yes there are. Andrew Tridgell has coded one up inside Samba 3.0.x (still in alpha). Available as the Samba HEAD CVS tree. It'll be the standard
auth mechanism for 3.0.

Regards,

Jeremy Allison,
Samba Team.

Re:What kind of hack is this?

[Anonymous Coward]

from http://www.ximian.com/products/connector/faq.html

Q: What features of Microsoft Exchange are supported?
A: Ximian Connector enables Ximian Evolution to function as a Microsoft Exchange 2000 client by communicating with Microsoft Exchange 2000 servers through the WebDAV protocol. End user data, including email boxes, address books, calendars, and task lists can be stored directly on the Exchange Server. With Connector installed, Ximian Evolution also supports group scheduling, including free/busy time publishing, with other users who are using the Exchange server.

So although evolution does support SMTP/IMAP4/LDAP Ximian Connector doesn't use them when talking to an e2k server. Going through WebDAV and using the scheduling features through evolution is nothing like using galeon and rendering HTML.

This is a waste of money...

[Anonymous Coward]

...if all you want to do is access MS Exchange email from alternative (see -> non-MS) platforms.


Sorry to burst everyones bubble, but MS has been providing access to Exchange via their free OWA (Outlook Web Access) addon for several years now.

Any decent web browser with Java support can connect. This Corporate connector simply takes the parsed html from OWA (notice it requires an OWA instance to be running to work) and feeds it into Evolution.

Don't get me wrong, if you like the way Evolution lays out your mail, and handles contacts then this might just be for you...but if all you're looking for is access to e-mail, then OWA, especially the Exchange 2000 edition does a pretty good job natively.


I would have been more impressed if Ximian folks would have reversed engineered the MAPI protocol and made the connector using native MAPI...


How much does anyone want to bet that MS breaks this with a disService Pack?

A DAV client

[bergie]

Since Exchange and Outlook 2000 are using WebDAV as their communications protocol, Ximian Connector is actually a WebDAV client.

I saw Greg Stein's WebDAV presentation in the Open Source CMS Conference. It seems that a lot of companies are actually switching for WebDAV as their primary communications protocol. Greg mentioned at least Adobe, Apple, Microsoft and Oracle. Good for interoperability.

/Bergie

Re:connector ? i want an GOOD exchange replacement

[HeUnique]

Umm, did you check Bynari.net solution? it runs just fine and it can replace your exchange server very nicely, AND got Linux mail clients if u need it...

Yup

[waldoj]

Is there a site or a HOWTO that gives hints on how to start getting the upper management in a company thinking about alternatives like this?

Yup.

Linux Advocacy mini-HOWTO
Bad Linux Advocacy FAQ
Don Marti's "Linuxmanship"

I recommend "Linuxmanship" the most highly.

-Waldo Jaquith

look at Corporate Time and the Outlook Connector

[np_geek]

Take at look at Corporate Time from Steltor (www.steltor.com). We're currently evaluating it to replace Exchange 2000. It runs on Linux (and Soalris and HPUX and 2000) and provides better calendaring than Exchange does. They have native clients for Windows, Mac and Unix.

They also have an Outlook client which uses an IMAP server to handle mail. To the user is looks like Outlook plugged in to Exchange, but you can run it all on Linux and way fewer machines than Exchange. It's not cheap, but it does seem to be a really good product.

Re:What kind of hack is this?

[xkahn]

The Ximian Connector talks to Exchange 2000 via web-dav. Interestingly, Microsoft decided to group the options for web-dav and OWA together. You have to turn OWA on in order to get web-dav.

Calendar, Mail, Tasks, and Contacts are all accessed through Exchange 2000's web-dav interface. The Global Address List is accessed through LDAP.

This is the reason that the requirements are:

• Ximian Evolution 1.0.3 or higher
• An account on a Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
• OWA support activated

I'm certainly biased, but the Connector feels smooth, integrated, and quick. And it certainly behaves itself very well. Here's a screenshot .

Re:Evolution and using other services

[miguel]

If by `Reverse Engineer' you mean `Read the source code that is provided as part of the Open Source/Free Software Evolution', then yes ;-)

Miguel