[afnog] Linux Alternatives to Micro$oft Exchange

[Hervey Allen]

Peter Nyamukusa wrote:
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: afnog-bounces at afnog.org [mailto:afnog-bounces at afnog.org] On Behalf
> Of Joseph
>> Okoegwale
>> Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 12:20 PM
>> To: afnog at afnog.org
>> Subject: [afnog] Linux Alternatives to Micro$oft Exchange
>>
>> Good morning friends,
>>
>> A friend's office is shopping for compelling alternatives to Micro$oft
> Exchange
>> and Office. 
> 

There are several commercial solutions available that offer much
lower licensing costs than using Exchange. There include:

http://www.bynari.com/

and their line of "Insight" products. Bynari uses OpenSource
software as the engine with custom scripting to make it interact
with Exchange. They claim somewhere between "95 and 99 percent"
replication of functionality - including the every-critical "free
busy schedule" function.

This is a bit buried, but Ximian was a group that worked with
Evolution under Gnome to create MS Exchange connectors for
Evolution. Novel has absorbed both these groups and created the
"Ximian Desktop" solution. Here is a bit about the piece that
interacts with Exchange:

http://www.novell.com/documentation/ximian/index.html?page=/documentation/ximian/desktop_user_guide/data/bqjr7vm.html

Novell's Evolution version 2 uses the same technology and does not
bury it so deeply. You can read about it here:

http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/features/evolution.html

It's compatible with Exchange Server 2000 and 2003.

Here's a download link for Evolution Exchange outside of the Novell
hierarchy:

http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Communications/Email/Evolution-Exchange-10879.shtml

I know there is one more commercial solution along the lines of
Bynari. If I can dig it up or remember the name I'll send it along.

Cheers,
	- Hervey Allen


-- 
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Hervey Allen      Network Startup Resource Center
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