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Multiple Front-End Solutions for Email and Calendaring?

Posted by Cliff on from the a-choice-of-interfaces dept.

USSJoin asks: "I am looking for a solution which I can install on my servers, that will allow me to run my email, calendars, to-do lists, and other groupware-ish functions. Specifically, I want a solution which allows equal access through the web and over an SSH session -- so that everything I do on one is accessible through the other. After extensive googling, I found Zimbra, which is nice and AJAX-ified, but doesn't include a to-do, and doesn't seem to have any way to deal with calendar access that is not made through the web front-end. I also found Citadel, but it seems like while it's a cute solution, it's quite cobbled-together and filled with hacks. This is especially true with its major Telnet interface, which seems dangerous to me. Has anyone on Slashdot had the same problem? What solutions have you found? Are Citadel or Zimbra really great and I just don't see their true possibilities? Are there other things I should be looking at, or different ways to approach this problem?"

9 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. Consider an SSH tunnel by Pyromage · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm guessing that you need it available via SSH because it's behind a firewall somewhere. Have you considered using a good web-based tool, and then using SSH to tunnel in?

  2. Zimbra has REST API's by khenriks · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Zimbra has a host of REST API's. These would allow you to access all your Zimbra data via SSH when needed. You could also just set up an SSH tunnel to get to the web UI, unless by SSH you mean command line only.

  3. Realism by aaronl · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What you're looking for is the same as a whole lot of other people are.

    There are a few open source kits out there that are decent, but none of them are really done. Kolab and OpenGroupware look nice, but they have extremely limited client support. Kolab doesn't even have a fully functional web interface, instead relying on KDE's Kontact. They will both play well with Outlook on Windows through a for-money connector. Citadel has many of the features, but lacks *any* real client. I would love if the OSS kits worked, but people are much more interested in adding toys than finishing the project in good stages.

    Sometimes the right answer is to spend money. Exchange, Notes/Domino, and GroupWise will do very close to what you want. There are a number of similar kits, like Kerio's mail server, Scalix (commerical OpenGroupware), OpenExchange, and whatever OpenMail became called.

    As much as people think web apps are so wonderful, they really need to understand that they are not a panacea. Working in a web app for major use is quite a total pain; they just don't work as nicely as a native application. The interfaces are slow and there is no capability for offline operation. If the only fully-functional interface to something like this is a web app, then you have to largely discount it as an option. Users will hate you for forcing them to it.

    If Evolution ran on Windows, you would be fairly done with the search. The devs haven't gotten around to making this a reality, so you are stuck in an annoying place. If you are looking for only yourself, then any of these solutions is probably sufficient. If you are looking for a product normal users will have to deal with, then look to spend money on software.

    1. Re:Realism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Working in a web app for major use is quite a total pain; they just don't work as nicely as a native application. ... Users will hate you for forcing them to it.

      This is so true. Having first hand experience from a midsize org where the IT department thought it was clever to have web only interface for mail/calendar/etc. For security and ease of admin reasons. For all the users it is constant pain, for the reasons you list. The IT department doesn't see this or care, they have a solution that work very well _for them_. The pointy hairs believes the IT department's technical arguments that it is necessary. Some IT departments seems to have the attitude that if it wasn't for all the users causing them problems, they could run a really neat operation.

  4. The Horde web site seems disorganized. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Horde web site seems disorganized. There seems to be no demo.

    I wish Open Source software authors were more careful about naming their software. Horde means crowd, with a negative connotation. Generally a horde is a group of poorly educated people, often savages.

    1. Re:The Horde web site seems disorganized. by dbIII · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I wish Open Source software authors were more careful about naming their software. Horde means crowd
      The roof above me is held up with a truss with a gusset plate. Oil is found with the assistance of six meter long devices called vibrators. Just take a mature view of things and don't let names that may have several meanings bother you - even "unix" is a silly name.
  5. Call for convergence by prestwich · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hi,
        I've been looking at the free calendaring disaster for a while now - and it is; there are
    perhaps 5-10 different packages, none of which interoperate; some very nice clients that
    only talk to really crap servers and some very nice servers with poor clients.

    Lets get some convergence here - please can we actually lock the
        Zimbra, Open Exchange, Sunbird, Open Groupware, Kolab
    (I must have missed some....)
    guys in a cave without food for a while until they actually agree to work together?
    For a concession I'll let caffeinated beverages in and a few computers with a copy
    of all known calendaring specs.

    (please toss in a couple of guys with MS programming experience so we can get Outlook
    to talk to the servers).

    1. Re:Call for convergence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      > I've been looking at the free calendaring disaster for a while now

      Yep, lots of crap out there. But blaming the free scene seems kind of unfair, since the "professionals" don't do any better.

      Yahoo Mail? Nice calender, but it doesn't import or export, and it only interoperates with Yahoo Mail, not with Outlook, Netscape, whatever.

      Outlook? Ok, the client is functional, the server works, but it doesn't interoperate either. If you look at the invitation without Outlook (that is in ASCII), you can't even parse it.

      Of course some are even worse. Mozilla Sunbird can't even read its own invitations, at least not in my environment :-)

      > Lets get some convergence here - please can we actually lock the guys in a cave without food for a while until they actually agree to work together?

      Yes please. It took ages with the office pacakages, but with the OpenDocument format it finally seems to happen.

      For calenders, we have vCalender and iCalender as possible standards, but nobody seems to get it right.

  6. Re:Citadel by mdfst13 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    OP: "This is especially true with its major Telnet interface, which seems dangerous to me."

    P: "Dangerous? No it ain't,"

    Telnet is inherently dangerous because it requires sending passwords in clear text across the wire. If you want to argue that this telnet based interface is not dangerous, you need to explain why it doesn't require sending passwords in clear text. I.e. why authentication is not important or how it encrypts the authentication (which would have to run on top of the telnet connection).

    This can certainly be true in some cases. For example, the common day timer application does not require authentication to return the system time. However, if you are talking about making edits over telnet, that does in fact require authentication. How do you verify identity? You can't use the options telnet gives you, as they are not secure; you have to build your own.

    There is also the question of whether or not the data needs to be encrypted. I can think of a number of situations where I would not want my email/scheduling info available in clear text.