linux corporate email server

[watts3000]

Does linux have anything that can rival exchange server 2000 or 2003. By this I mean a full featured email program that not only servers email, but also offers calendering public folders and bascially all the collaborative features that exchange come with.Also do you guys know of any companies thats using a linux email solution if so how is it perorming for them?

 

[kennyj]

There are actually a few Exchange servers for Linux, none of which are free though... SuSE has one that comes to mind (should be interesting to watch on account of the acquisition by Novell) and there's a few others as well.

There are also some web-based groupware setups, the most robust of which appears to be: http://moregroupware.sourceforge.net/index.php

In addition, Oracle's groupware setup (Exchange compatible) is available for Linux as well as Windows.

I do believe Evolution is supposed to be able to utilize Exchange and Exchange-like services, but I really don't know for certain.

As far as I know, there are not yet any Exchange servers that are free for Linux.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: watts3000
Does linux have anything that can rival exchange server 2000 or 2003.

No.

However there are plenty of respectable email servers available for linux.

 

[watts3000]

Well have any of you guys used qmail along with squirl mail. I figured linux had nothing to really rival exchange. I know some network admins that are very linux friendly but sill love exchange.

 

[Flatline]

Exchange does some things very well and is easy to manage. That said, I would absolutely LOVE to play around with SUSE's substitute...from what I understand, it is a pretty viable Exchange replacement (and being SUSE, the administration can all be done graphically, so it's less intimidating for Windows admins than other alternatives).

 

[manly]

HP's OpenMail was bought out by Samsung.

I think you can get a free trial.

 

[drag]

Check out Suse's openexchange. Suse offer's good support and mantianance programs were you get continous upgrades and improvements.

Also with Novell's parternship you can get things like Ximian Corporate desktop, Novell's traditional Zenworks, Netware, and NDS (AD is NDS with the jpeg quality settings at 50%) to augment you Redhat/SuSE servers and desktops.

For linux they espcially have Nterprise services that take traditional Netware stuff and run it on Linux. Linky

One of the interesting things is that Netware tightly integrates with Window's desktop. So that you can beginning switching over to netware and nterprise stuff, then when it comes time to renew or upgrade your window's liscences you can simply drop MS and go with Linux desktop. Everything will already be centered around Linux and Novell stuff, so that everyone will be used to using those tools.

To the end user it's not going ot matter much which OS your using; Linux or Windows. And that's the goal of this sort of thing. To make the underlining OS to matter as little as possible and concitrate on creating a overall solution that you can taylor for your own company.

Also check out IBM's stuff. Their was a very publicised memo were one of the head guys is having IBM's entire IT department switch over completely to Linux and encorage's the rest of the company to switch.

Also what people are pushing for is web-based aplications. You can set up your information exchange and calender stuff to run off of a local intranet. Think about instead of running all your support lines and department communitaction (just a idea) instead of completely thru e-mail, but thru forums like this one running on your intranet. Or company memos on something like Slashdot, were people can add comments to important communications. You could set that sort of stuff up as the home page of all the employee's web server.

Then you can still rely on e-mail for just personal communications and instant messegners for quick communication. All of that stuff can be created using all open source software and will work very reliably and be fast and cheap.


It just depends on what exactly you want to accomplish with your setup.

 

[burnedout]

Also what people are pushing for is web-based applications. You can set up your information exchange and calender stuff to run off of a local intranet. Think about instead of running all your support lines and department communitaction (just a idea) instead of completely thru e-mail, but thru forums like this one running on your intranet. Or company memos on something like Slashdot, were people can add comments to important communications. You could set that sort of stuff up as the home page of all the employee's web server.

Along these lines, another method I've used is running a private nntp news server in-house on an old unix or linux box. You are right. It is very easy to trash out a corporate mail system with so many memos, policies, etc.

 

[watts3000]

drag well sincw linux mail servers don't have the ability of public folders as exchange does. One would most likely have to run inhouse forums this would allow the company to have a collaborative environment. drag thats a great idea I never even thought of forums. I really trying to get into linux more and I want to start doing consultant linux projects for small business basically I'm trying to find a way to give them what I've always given customers an a exchange 2000, 2003 environment. burnedout I have'nt gotton into nnttp servers yet I know that ita a news server. So I'm assuming the nntp server ran some tape of forums.

 

[burnedout]

burnedout I have'nt gotton into nnttp servers yet I know that ita a news server. So I'm assuming the nntp server ran some tape of forums.

NNTP is similar to using e-mail in a collaborative environment. Just think of Usenet. You can configure a Linux or Unix box with INN to support NNTP. One feature I always liked about this old tried and true system of messaging is that attachments can be included with the messages sent to the server. Some linux distros, like Redhat for instance, come with the RPM. Configuration can be a pain at times although a private NNTP server setup, which is what I recommend and have used, isn't too difficult. There is some documentation out there. In fact, I'm setting up a private newsserver for a project this week.

There are some drawbacks when using NNTP in a business environment, but nevertheless, it is a decent solution for collaboration.

 

[watts3000]

What eactly are the drawbacks. Do they give you a full forum environment such as anandtech also I forgot to ask. Whats your favorite email server to set up for linux I'm looking for something that can also provide web mail maybe I'll check into squirrel mail.

 

[burnedout]

Originally posted by: watts3000
What eactly are the drawbacks. Do they give you a full forum environment such as anandtech also I forgot to ask. Whats your favorite email server to set up for linux I'm looking for something that can also provide web mail maybe I'll check into squirrel mail.

Newgroups don't give you a forum environment, per se. What they do is make simple message collaboration easy. My advice is to get with your ISP, subscribe to some newsgroups and check out the structure. Bear in mind that these are public newsgroups. Therefore, don't post any attachments on the groups or you may get flamed.

Then, if you like the concept, you can configure such an arrangement on a linux server. The main advantage internal, private newsgroups have over forums is the ability to include attachments. I guess one could say that the main disadvantage is the lack of sophistication. Editing of messages isn't possible but cancellations of messages are possible with some news servers. In short, private newsgroups could be considered a poor man's substitute for public folders.

Sendmail is easiest to configure with linux. You might want to check out some IMAP setups. Yes, squirrelmail is nice. Null webmail is the most easily setup, in my opinion.

Above all, no matter what solution you decide upon, please remember to backup, backup backup your data. Look at implementation of a disaster recovery plan. Documenting the administration of your servers is also a good idea.

 

[n0cmonkey]

twiki or bugzilla might be adaptable for this kind of use.

*nix mail servers: qmail is one of my favorites, but the license is unacceptable for some. postfix is decent, but can be a PITA. exim is out there, but I haven't touched it. And of course, sendmail. Any of these should be compatible with squirrelmail or imp.