[Wolves] Linux and Exchange / Outlook

[James Turner]

On Wednesday 28 April 2004 09:32, Katherine Goodwin wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> After various things to do with shared calendaring coming up on our
> wishlist at work, and after discussions with a few people at the Expo
> (Hello Ron *wave*), including some customers of ours, it seems that one
> of the things that prevents some people in businesses from feeling that
> they can try to convince people to move to Linux is the lack of the
> shared calendaring bit of outlook and exchange.
>
> I've done a bit of reading into what is available here, and I'd like to
> try out some of the alternatives so that I can evaluate them for
> customers, but my biggest problem is that I'm not sure exactly what
> outlook does in this respect!
>
> So, does anyone or has anyone used the calendaring stuff in
> outlook/exchange?  If so, what features do you use and find the most
> useful?

Several of the main features (in no particular order) are
 - SMTP/POP3/IMAP/NNTP server
 - Instant messaging server (for MSN Messanger?)
 - WebMail version of Outlook
 - Contacts list, including searching for users in Active Directory
 - Task lists
 - Calendars
 - Scheduling meetings between several users, including booking rooms, etc
 - Some sort of conferencing (audio/video) support

At work we use the SMTP and POP3 servers and the contacts lists. Most users 
run the WebMail client and one or two use the calendars and task lists on an 
individual basis. The way the company works coupled with lack of end-user 
training prevents the use of shared calendars, meeting scheduling, etc.