[SLL] Exchange Alternatives

[Bill Campbell]

On Mon, Oct 29, 2007, Phil Mocek wrote:
>On Mon, Oct 29, 2007 at 07:39:10AM -0700, Eric Kahklen wrote:
>> We are considering replacing Exchange next year so I am putting
>> together a list of collaboration suites and so far I've come up
>> with these two affordable options since we are a non-profit[:
>> Zimbra and Citadel].
>
>I would be considering those two regardless of their affordability
>(in fact, I've done just that for a company who has outgrown plain
>'ole IMAP accounts and is ready and willing to pay for Exchange).
>Exchange puts you on a path to major vendor lock-in.  (Side note:
>want to avoid Sharepoint?  Look into Alfresco.)

Zope/Plone is also excellent for this.

>I've done a little bit of research and evaluation of Zimbra.  Best
>I can tell, it is the first truly viable alternative to Exchange
>if you want all of Echange's functionality.  Though I have not
>used it thoroughly, from what I have seen, I can't say enough good
>things about it.  Group calendaring with Outlook, Mail.app, and
>Evolution?  Web UI that is better than many desktop applications'
>UIs?  Heavy-duty, trusted applications like Postfix, Spamassassin,
>and ClamAV behind the scenes?  Sign me up.
>
>You can get an instant online demo of the Web UI on the Zimbra
>site, and hosted Zimbra providers (On Deck Tech, who spun off
>their Zimbra hosting to 01.com, is one I liked) will set you up
>with a full-featured demo on a test domain.

My main gripe with Zimbra is that it really wants to own the
machine, with its own versions of amavisd, postfix, clamav,
openldap, etc., and runs on a limited set of Linux distributions.

Bill
--
INTERNET:   bill at celestial.com  Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC
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Ah, you know the type.  They like to blame it all on the Jews or the
Blacks, 'cause if they couldn't, they'd have to wake up to the fact that
life's one big, scary, glorious, complex and ultimately unfathomable
crapshoot -- and the only reason THEY can't seem to keep up is they're a
bunch of misfits and losers.
        -- A analysis of Neo-Nazis, from "The Badger" comic