Help me avoid Exchange

[Neil Joseph Schelly]

On Thursday 22 December 2005 03:40 pm, Paul Lussier wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> Up until now I've been fairly lucky in maintaining our IMAP server on
> Cyrus.  However, we've identified a project which we'd like to move
> forward to better construct our mail architecture.  When we proposed
> this project to our VP of Engineering, he rightfully asked the
> question of, "Why should we bother continuing to maintain anything
> related to mail when we have an IT group to do just that?"

Is that the only reason to go forward with this?  If you have something that 
works, I find it hard to believe that he just decided one day you should 
combine with them.  There must be some reason he wants to push you in that 
direction.

As for interoperability with Exchange from the client side, I've never had 
problems with Kontact from KDE.  It does the calendaring, address booking, 
and email without any difficulty.  That said, it's no better or worse than 
the free alternatives that will likely give you far more flexibility.  

That said, if you're looking just to use IMAP, Exchange can do that and my 
guess is your boss is concerned you're spending too much time managing the 
current solution rather than contributing to the purpose of your department 
(which I'm assuming is not supposed to overlap with the IT group).  If you 
want to keep things the way they are, convince him there's no overhead to 
maintaining things as they are.

Honestly, that hasn't been my experience (although limited) with Cyrus - I 
find it to be a pain in the ass.  I guess I don't really have an opinion one 
way or the other on this issue aside from a general disgust for Exchange, but 
hopefully this collection of unrelated points and digressions may help you 
out.
-N