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How To (Really) Share A Simple Calendar?
Lucas asks: "I run a small business as one of the people who 'knows something about computers', which now means, like many of you, I find myself having to solve IT problems. We have been trying to share maybe three simple, stupid calendars. Here's the catch -- we need to able to edit each other's calendars! This is where the problem comes in. We tried Mozilla Calendar/Sunbird with a WebDAV server (even though it deleted two calendars upon upload and barfed on a third, my office loves Sunbird's interface), OfficeZilla (too complicated for just one calendar), Calendars.net (too slow), ACT! (bolted on and expensive), and Yahoo (not designed for corporate stuff). Even iCal won't let you edit someone else's calendar. Is there any way to do this -reliably- without using MS Exchange and without spending a ton of money?"
The "free data engine thingy" is also known as MSDE, and works pretty well, but is limited to databases of less than 2 GB. You didn't say why Exchange has been ruled out. If it's for stability reasons, you're barking up the wrong tree. Exchange is pretty solid and has gotten more reliable over the years. Same with Windows. If it's a cost issue, Windows 2003 small business server is $599, which includes Exchange and Outlook 2003 and 5 CALs. If you need the hardware, you can get a cheap http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx ?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=sc430r649&s=bsd>Dell server AND 2003SBS for under 700$. You'll probably want to spring for something more fault tolerant, which could cost you 1000$. Over 5 years, you're talking about an expenditure of $20 per month. That's less than the coffee fund.
You'll need to setup and maintain it, if you don't have a windows background that could prove tough for you. But there are reasons so many places stick with Exchange, shared calendars are high on the list.