MS Exchange Server competition

[bscott at ntisys.com]

On Mon, 16 Aug 2004, at 9:18pm, coutu at snowy-owl.com wrote:
> I recently did an investigation for a client of Linux based alternatives
> to Exchange. I found two that were very good at providing full blown
> Exchange capabilities and compatibility.

  Do either support MAPI?  That is, do they provide seamless Microsoft
Outlook integration?  Not just IMAP mail (which Outlooks has limits with
anyway), but contacts, calendar -- the whole Outlook store.  Right or wrong,
that's what a lot of people want.

  Based on a cursory examination, it would appear Bynari's stuff does not.  
OpenExchange is kinda fuzzy on the details of their "Outlook Connection",
but screen shots of Outlook are conspicuous by their absence.

> My primary beef with [SuSE OpenExchange] is the cost. For small shops the
> cost, while cheaper than Exchange by 1/2 to 1/3 less, is still
> substantial.

  That doesn't concern me so much.  The issue I usually face is that people
want the kind of Outlook integration that Exchange provides, but I would
like to be using a Linux server.  Since nothing on Linux I know of can meet
their needs, we go with Windows instead.

  The only product I've found that does MAPI that runs on Linux is Samsung
Contact (formerly HP OpenMail), and Samsung won't talk to you unless you're
buying 500 or more seats.

  Again, I can do things like IMAP and LDAP in Outlook, and web-based
systems for the rest, right now, for free.  Spending more to get the same
doesn't make sense.  I'm willing to spend more to get more, but I want to
see that I'm actually getting more.

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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