Exchange equivilant on Linux?

[drag]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: Nothinman

That assumes everyone uses those features. I had access to an exchange system at plenty of jobs, and I wouldn't even be able to tell you how to access those features.

Same here. I have a calender and crap and I never touch it. If I agree to a meeting it gets put in my calender, but otherwise it never gets used. But for secretaries, it's invaluable because they can schedule crap and allocate resources pretty easily and quickly with it.

If you want to use the Outlook calendaring you're probably screwed for now. You can probably find some decent web calendars or something that will work with Mozilla Sunbird though.

For mail any IMAP server will do. Outlook IMAP support isn't that great, but unless you have thousands of files in a folder it should be fine. I really like Cyrus IMAPd, but it's a bit of a pain to setup.

Nice to hear I'm not alone.
I actually don't have a clue about how to schedule a meeting myself, though I do get invited to them, which gives me a reminder 15 minutes ahead of time, which is nice.

Of course, IMO 90% of all meeting are utter crap and a waste of time.

I think I always ignored the invitations.

I agree about meetings being a waste of time though.

That's why Hula is building a plugin/extension archetecture. That way I can build my 'lamer' detector. It starts off fairly innaccurate, but as you progress and more accurately define your own private LDAP schema then it uses hueristics to determine corporate meetings and their value. Probably rate it on -10 to +10 basis.

Each person would have a sliding scale of worthlessness.
For instance:
Score points if:
Mouth Breather = -5, Sales Manager = -4, Accountant = -3, Somebody else's boss = -2, upper management = -1, Windows Guru = +1, Your boss = +2 , *nix Guru = +3, Enlightentened one = +4, That hot girly who is a BSD user = +5

Then it rates them. And it's not just restricted to one catagory per person. For instance you may give 'drinking buddy' label a +3 score... so If it's your boss who sometimes you go drinking with and he is very good at windows he scores a total of +6

Which means that you definately want to show up because if you don't there is a 30% chance you get fired and it's likely that you'd get drunk before the meeting is over if you do show up. But if it's your boss who is a drinking buddy who shows up with a Sales manager and 2 mouth breathers then that scores a total of +6, -4. -5. -5. for a grand total of -8, which means that you should avoid it.

Think of it like a SPAM filter for people. If it scores a +3 or higher then it doesn't automaticly get deleted off of your scedual.

Then for finer grade control I think I will impliment a mulitplication percentages based on outcome that is projected based on on previous missed meetings with individuals and stated subject matter. For istance if you think that you may be getting a promotion you'd want to multiply that meeting up even though there may be a unfortunately high population of mouth breathers or accountants showing up.

Needless to say this sort of 'fuzzy' logic is hard to get right so I will welcom any volenteers to test this idea out for me.

 

[nweaver]

LMAO...


can I score myself for other people? I am a -10, so don't schedule me anymore!!

 

[DnetMHZ]

Originally posted by: Hyperblaze

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Not a thread crap, flame bait, or anything of that nature: What about exchange makes people get tingly in their nether regions?

licencing issues?

this non-profit company wishes to get exchange working on their server.

If this volenteer team I'm part of can save them a few thousands dollars which can be used elsewhere...why not?

Are you also going to volunteer to administer this server once it is set up?
If you are just turning over the keys when you're done, Exchange will be well worth the extra money simply for ease of adminitration for the company.

 

[nweaver]

exchange has no ease of use or ease of administration.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: nweaver
LMAO...


can I score myself for other people? I am a -10, so don't schedule me anymore!!

Well you can walk around looking confused. Ask silly questions and look like your drowning then make gasping noises everytime you close your mouth for more then 30 seconds.

The system will then take care of itself.

 

[nweaver]

I just want time to get work done, instead of sitting in the conference room playing bullshit bingo...

Link removed, gotta find where I stashed that pic

 

[DnetMHZ]

Originally posted by: nweaver
exchange has no ease of use or ease of administration.

It's a hell of a lot easier than anything your going to put together on a Linux server.

 

[nweaver]

no, it isn't. Trust me, I have manage multiple exchange servers in large AD domains/forests. Just because it's got a picture doesn't make it easier. The BIGGESt problems are when exchange goes down/has issues. It's a biotch with a pretty face then.

 

[DnetMHZ]

Originally posted by: nweaver
no, it isn't. Trust me, I have manage multiple exchange servers in large AD domains/forests. Just because it's got a picture doesn't make it easier. The BIGGESt problems are when exchange goes down/has issues. It's a biotch with a pretty face then.

In the context of this thread though, whomever will be taking over as "admin" of this server
will most likely not be that savy, so point and click is the way to go. We're not talking about running an enterprise here.

 

[nweaver]

Exchange is a complex beast. You are not going to be able to "Point and click" and fix most problems, unless you have experience (and even then..). If exchange breaks, an average end user will not be able to fix it. Sure, it's the same with a linux server, but you could put ssh and remote in, and it COULD be claimed that the linux server would be more robust/stable. I have seen exchange die so ungracefully that it dropped the box off the network (i.e. no terminal server or remote command line tools would work). Most linux apps will not crash the box bad enough that you cannot remote into it. I haven't installed any linux mail servers, so maybe I am wrong. I HAVE done exchange, and I am saying, for a small company without an exchange admin, it will be bad. They could get a support contract for an open source solution cheaper then Windows OS/CALS/Exchange licenses.

 

[Red and black]

MSexchange is an incredibly poor mail server. It eats headers, destroys threading, and sucks up huge amounts of admin time.

When the company I was working at switched from qmail to MSexchange, it was a very very expensive, huge step backwards in functionality as a mail server.

 

[nweaver]

all of the headache, for a small popup reminding you to waste some more time in the meeting...

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: Sunner
Of course, IMO 90% of all meeting are utter crap and a waste of time.

Exactly. If meetings are so prevalent in an organization that their scheduling becomes a problem, then the choice of the technological solution is the last thing that organization needs to worry about.

 

[djdrastic]

I agree with nweaver one of my roles is Exchange Admin , and believe me exchange is just incredibly bad when it breaks . I've had countless server restores / faulty exchange mail stores in my department

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: cleverhandle

Originally posted by: Sunner
Of course, IMO 90% of all meeting are utter crap and a waste of time.

Exactly. If meetings are so prevalent in an organization that their scheduling becomes a problem, then the choice of the technological solution is the last thing that organization needs to worry about.

It's not just meetings. I use it to manage my time and my team's time.

I've worked for both "small" large companies (500 employees in one or two locations) and "large" large companies (10000 employees spanning the globe) and they all relied on some form of scheduling software. Not always Exchange, but always some form of scheduling software.

See my prior post on the benefits of scheduling software. Once you cross the line of about 100 employees or multiple offices, especially in other countries, it becomes an invaluable tool. At this point, meetings are troublesome no matter how many there are when you've got limited videoconferencing units and meeting spaces and hundreds of people trying to coordinate using them.

 

[drag]

Look at it this way:

It's either a calendering or scedualing software of some sort...
OR
It's post-it notes and memos.

There is no 'Exchange' equivelent in Linux that is free, but you can get the functionality that you want/need in Linux and make it easy to maintain if you do your job right.

 

[IBuyUFO]

Anyone that ever recommends lotus notes should be shot! Lotus notes is worse than the stuff AOL puts out.