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Drop-In Replacement For Exchange Now Open Source
Fjan11 writes "Over 150 man-years of work were added to the Open Source community today when Zarafa decided to put their successful Exchange server replacement under GPLv3. This is not just the typical mail-server-that-works-with-Outlook, it is the whole package — including 100% MAPI, web access, tasks, iCal and Activesync. (The native syncing works great with my iPhone!) Binaries and source are available for all major Linux distros."
They better start hiring support personnel, because there will likely be profits to be had with service contracts. Maybe even a Redhat buyout/partnership
Over the last few months, I've been forced to use Exchange/Outlook a lot, and for the life of me I don't get the big deal. But I know that people consider it a big deal, so I wish this company the best, and fair
amount of profit.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Well, that's certainly nice, push-mail, activesync, mapi, all the things people like about Exchange in an open source variant, why the hell not?
I've been running OpenGroupware myself as a cheap replacement for Exchange (using funambol to replace ActiveSync) and it works nicely, but the more alternatives to Exchange the better!
I've yet to try this one, i hope it's atleast as "easy" to manage as an Exchange server tho, if you need 10 Rocket Scientists to install it, then open sourcing it won't make it magicly defeat Exchange, and sometimes i get the impression people tend to forget other people use their applications too.
In short, the more the merrier! Long live FOSS!
Last time I looked on the Zarafa website, it looked like the free community (GPL) edition had a limited number of MAPI clients. I guess this is still the case? If so, it's not really a practical replacement for Exchange unless you pay for the commercial edition.
Citadel also tries to be a full-featured e-mail/calendaring/task management/etc system.
Zarafa is available under the Affero GPLv3, which has some rather critical differences from the regular GPLv3, namely that a lot of people don't consider it to be a Free Software license. Specifically, it has a lot of properties of a EULA in that you can't modify it as you see fit even if you don't plan to distribute it.
Rats. I was looking forward to this.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Exactly. And I'd much trust something like Cyrus IMAP over Exchange for data integrity any day of the week.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Parent was obviously modded down by some newbie to moderation who didn't get the joke, doesn't understand throwing chairs in Redmond, and modded it off-topic because he didn't understand it. This is a lousy excuse for moderation!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Drop in replacement, you say? Will MOSS or CRM play with it? Will it pick up AD rules and GPOs? What about BCM and Project Server?
OR, is it just another glorified POP/IMAP box?
I read the feature set from the web site.
I know Exchange, I was in the original product group way back when. This AINT no DROP IN REPLACEMENT.
That said, for what it does, good for them!
But people should watch their words. Side by side against Exchange 2007, it would not be a fair fight.
From their FAQ:
If I build Zarafa from source, can I still buy a license for Outlook access?
Technically this is possible, but you always need to have the Zarafa-professional package for Outlook support. This package is available for the default supported distributions.
From the F.A.Q.:
"The first three users that connect to the community versions with Outlook can only use Outlook. All other users can only connect via webaccess, imap/pop3 or Z-Push."
I think you mis-understand. This isn't meant to replace Outlook, the Windows-only desktop mail/groupware client. This is meant to replace Exchange, the Windows-only mail/groupware SERVER that Outlook is built to connect to, complete with cloning the MAPI protocol Outlook speaks. We won't have a drop-in Outlook replacement until Evolution finishes their MAPI code (IIRC in the next release).
Of course, this is all moot in a lot of businesses if it can't connect to BES, which you (currently) need a Windows box for anyway.
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
Sure you can, but Zarafa aint no gun.
Xandros with Scalix also works as a drop in,with the added bonus of being able to be either a member or a domain controller in an AD forest. Really nice if you need to support a mixed environment. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
That's right, Microsoft: open source software can gun for you too, motherfuckers!
I'm sure Microsoft is trembling.
The site is so hammered I it took about 4 minutes to load, and the first thing I noticed? Two colums for downloading. The first one says "AGPL3 Only" and the second says "incl. 3 users Outlook support".
Common--you know that that means. "We open sourced part of our software to try and suck you in--but you'll really find it limited until you fork over slightly less that you would have with Microsoft Exchange."
There's no place like
Exchange does not use PSTs. Migrating off Exchange is fine. You canc onnect to Exchange with IMAP and dump data. Just like you can with every other open source server. Problem is that Exchange has features which these other servers do not, and thus it's not really going to work out: Calendars/Contacts. And yes. I do juggle backups, patches, etc. I run Exchange on a set of clustered boxes sharing storage. I can fail over a machine, patch one, and bring it back up. Pretty freaking easy. I honestly never touch the thing except to apply patches. Once every 6 months. Ever tried to migrate a user's mailbox from one site to another? One button. It moves it on it's own. Authentication is integrated into AD. One password. All communication uses Kerberos. It's lovely.
That's exactly what they did: http://www.zarafa.com/content/versions
http://www.mhall119.com
I've seen dozens and the only ones that have that kind of load and keep up without tons of maintenance are ones that are running as POP and not true Exchange servers.
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This looks like cripleware to me. The "open source" version is limited to 3 outlook clients. That doesn't sound very open!
(posting as AC because karma system sux).
If the source IS available under the GPL, one can correct it and provide a much more capable version, no?
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
I disagree! With just a few simple apps you can do everything exchange does and more.
Email-Postfix
Calendar-iCal + LDAP
Meeting requests-iCal
Tasks-iCal
Synchronization-Webdav or SyncML
Publishing Calendars-Webdav(Caldav) or SyncML
Sharing/Editing the same calendar-Webdav(GroupDav) or SyncML
Webmail-Many choices, some with calendars, AJAX, etc
Blackberry-Funambol, SyncML I mean seriously, what else do you need? Encryption? Got it. There are tons of more features with clients like Evolution and Thunderbird including desktop integration.
Xandros with Scalix also works as a drop in
Except to get full features on Outlook, you need their MAPI Connector, which requires you to pay for "premium user" licenses.
Which if you check the prices of licenses compared to Exchange is a WHOLE lot cheaper.(Disclaimer-I don't work for Xandros,I just enjoy the ease of use). Look,Xandros+Scalix isn't meant for Linux gurus that are the masters of the CLI game,it is designed for businesses that have primarily Windows admins and need something that just works,or for those that have to support a mixed environment.
Thanks to a plugin you can manage your Xandros server from either your Windows server or your admin desktop,the Xandros XMC is so identical to the MMC that it takes almost no retraining at all to switch your Windows admins over,and with of 60 roles already to go with nice wizards it takes the CLI and guesswork out of setup and maintaining the server. I believe in the right tool for the job,and for the average SMB,or for those that don't have Linux admins on staff,Xandros takes a lot of the hair pulling out of switching. It even has both Xen and Vmware support built into the kernel so you can get virtual servers up and running in no time at all.
They have a free 90 day trial on their website so if you have space for a VM or an old server sitting around unused why don't you give it a try and decide for yourself? That is always better than taking someone else's word for it anyway. And as always this is my 02c,YMMV
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.