[Wolves] open xchange

[David Goodwin]

Simon Burke wrote:
> I'm currently looking into open-xchange (open-xchange.org), just to
> play with really.
> 
> Does anyone on the list have any experience on setting up such a beast
> on a fresh debian sarge box?
> 
> The documentation seems a little complex to be honest, but its doable i guess.
> 
> Any help/tips appreciated. Im brushing up my LDAP at the mo.

Hi,

I installed it from source on Sarge about two months ago. (v0.7.4)

1) Open-Xchange isn't easy to install (if you get it's sources). It took 
me a good few hours - there are numerous dependencies and config files 
which need copying around from one place to another.

2) It's integration with Outlook is non-existant. The SuSE boxed product 
has outlook connectors, but the open source version doesn't.

3) Compared to the boxed product, the open source version doesn't have :
a) Samba integration
b) PDC support
c) Easy to use admin tools
d) An admin web interface
e) Outlook integration.

As far as I can see there is also no easy migration path from Exchange 
to Open-Xchange. When looking into this in the past for customers, there 
appear to be companies around who can do it, but they never reveal how; 
nor do I believe is there an open source integration tool around next.


However, having said all of that :

Netline (the people behind developing Open-xchange) are planning to 
release a connector for open-xchange <-> outlook in Q1/Q2 this year 
(last I heard). Apparently it will be open sourced, however they have 
not made a release of it afaik and as all other connectors on the market 
are proprietary I'm dubious as to whether they will open source theirs.

The groupware aspects of open xchange aren't bad, but they could be 
better. I think they are better than many of the php based products.


I'm not sure if there is an evolution connector either...


David.

-- 
David Goodwin
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