[Gllug] MS Exchange - groupware replacement

[Ken Smith]

Juergen Schinker wrote:
> Alain Williams wrote:
>   
>> I have not had a look at this area recently, I was wondering what the collected
>> wisdom was on providing equvalent functionality. A customer is asking me,
>> they are essentially green field: ie no MS exchange [they have mdaemon that would be replaced],
>> but they use MS Outlook on the desktop. Most desktops are MS XP pro.
>>
>> Wanted functionality
>>
>> 1) Email
>> 2) Groupware (mainly callendaring)
>> 3) Integration with mobiles (eg blackberry)
>>
>> (1) In the first instance I would be inclined to install: exim & dovecot; with squirrelmail
>> for those who want webmail (eg from home). I would prob put user registration in an OpenLDAP
>> database for when we get them to move data files from multiple C: drives onto Samba
>> $HOMEs (a gleam in the eye of their IT man). This is all reasonably easy.
>>
>> I might try to pursuade them to move to Thunderbird rather than Outlook.
>>
>> (2) I have done before using web apps (eg Horde); if they keep outlook then I need something
>>     that speaks the dreaded MAPI protocol. All the plugins seem proprietary.
>>
>> (3) I know little about.
>>
>> So: what is best server side to do this ?
>>
>>
>>     
> 1) Cyrus-Imapd with postfix
> 2) opengroupware.org  (has MAPI-Connector)
> 3) Mobiles with IMAP(S)-Clients (maybe a syncml solution for PUSH)
>   
I have several OpenGroupware, Sendmail, Cyrus-imap installations live. 
The MAPI connector is flaky, has a few undocumented features and doesn't 
support OL 2007. There is a new MAPI connector in the wings that I have 
yet to test that is supposed to support OL 2007

I like OpenGroupware because it just sits alongside whatever e-mail 
system is already there. But, OGo's own webmail client prefers Cyrus 
IMAP. When I tried it with Dovecot with the OGo-WebUI process swallowed 
the server's CPU.

As far as IMAP clients go, I have found most regular users are addicted 
to Outlook and find the small difference between that and Thunderbird to 
be a real obstacle. I don't get it myself, as I find MS's IMAP 
implementation in Outlook a disaster. Their representation of deleted 
messages is just obtuse.

So it all works but there are some wrinkles to get round. A solid Open 
Source Groupware system is a key requirement.

:-) Ken

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