Topic: Exchane features

[Steven]

I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but I'm going to reiterate it, as this should not be a wish - SME will NEVER become mainstream until this feature is added.

We need to be able to connect to SME with Outlook in the same way that Outlook can connect to exchange ie. Global address books, server based mail storage(so that I dont need to import mail every time I need to reload a machine, and also so that my users can log onto different machines and have THEIR mail box in front of them) etc.

I don't see why this is such a difficult thing to do - surely if you can create a powerfull mail server like SME, this is easy?

This really needs to be addressed soon.

Steven

[Jon Roberts]

Steven,

There's a product called Bynari Insight Connector that plugs into Outlook that means it can used IMAP server instead of Exchange.  Problem is it needs IMAP with ACL, which isn't currently available in SME.

Search on IMAP and Bynari in the forums for more info

[Steven]

Which defeats the pupose!
Mitel and SME will have to do something about this if they wish to compete with Microsoft.
Even if it did work with SME, you should not have to add in plugins, it should be as seamless as using exchange, otherwise SME cannot maintain that their mail server is as good.
Having said that, if they did make it possible to do even with plugins I would be happy.

Don't get me wrong, I think SME is brilliant, It just needs a few more features that are expected of a mail server.

Steven

[Cyrus Bharda]

Steven,

If you think it is that easy, why not show us how it is done then?

I have been playing around with billworkgroup (exchange4linux) and believe me it is not just as easy as install it and whammo, instant exchange replacement.

There are hundreds of people right this second screaming for a exchange replacement on linux, and just like them, you will have to sit tight and wait for a suitable replacement to arrive.

Cyrus Bharda

[Steven]

Cyrus that is exactly my point, SME will never become mainstream until it is as easy to set up as Exchange.
I am not a developer, I am an end user, so I'm afraid I can't do it, all I'm saying is that it should be as easy(and if not easy, just possible!) to set up as exchange - this is where microsoft still has the upper hand on things.

Steven

[Cyrus Bharda]

Steven,

It it, called Samsung Contact, but again you have to pay for it and it runs on a seperate server, not SME.

Unfortunatly I do t think Mitel have a massive amount of funding to pour into something that already exists.

Right now SME does exactly what I need it to and does it a damn sight better than my old Windows 2000 Server did it on half as much hardware!

Yes SME would become more popular if it was a "all-in-one" type package, but then it would only be available for subscribing customers, as Mitel would surely want to recoup funds spent engineering this into SME, which is what I'd do!

You cannt expect everything to be free.

Cyrus Bharda

[Steven]

Thats the problem - I've found a couple of exchange type servers, but they all need to be installed as their own operating system, and I don't want to stop using SME.
SME does do all the things I want, bar exchange, but I guess its a sacrafice I'll have to make.
I was looking at Exchange4linux after your last post, and am going to test the easygate method (on a different server of course!) and see how it works - and then hopefully guys like you will be able to create an RPM from the source code, so that people like me can install it onto our existing SME boxes.
Good luck!

Steven

[Hsing-Foo]

watch the recent development on http://www.opengroupware.org

[Mats Karlsson]

But isn't it a problem that Opengroupware just support PostgreSQL and nor MySQL that e-smith uses ?


/Mats

[Tyrone Miles]

If you go to Contribs.org you will see a how-to on how to set up PostgreSQL and then opengroupware on e-smith without affecting mySQL.

[Jens Kruuse]

I'm puzzled why somebody, who wants an Exchange server, doesn't buy one? You could let the SME Server forward all mail to it and vise-versa. No problem.

Btw, it's a shame Lotus Notes/Domino will never be "mainstream" as it doesn't have Outlook/Exchange connectivity. Otherwise you could run Domino on your SME and Notes on the clients. Or perhaps iNotes?

/Jens

[Tyrone Miles]

I think the reason why people on here want the features but don't buy exchange is the cost. Exchange 2003 standard is about $750 just for the software plus you have to have windows 2000/2003 server standard which (If you buy it) is a few hundred dollars. Then you have to buy CAL's for the server and Exchange. I don't know the cost for 2000/2003 server CAL's but I know for Exchange they are about $70 per user.

Imagine if you could get the same features for say $200 - $300 flat it would be a big deal. But that has not happened yet. Suse openexchange is $1200 and 1000 users will cost you about $35,000 on top.  And notes is just as high as exchange as far as cost goes.

But if 1. Some one could make a low cost solution and a low cost plugin for outlook to work seemlessly with whatever server backend. Or 2. Ximian made evolution for Windows so you could be close to outlook without having to pay Microsoft to license their API's in order to make a plugin, the world would be a BETTER place.

[Beeckmans Olivier]

Actually, I've two server on my place.
One SME for the Internet Gateway/PHP/MySQL and One Win2K just for the Exchange Server and Domain account.
Workstation are Win2K/WinXP with outlook.
My Dream, put the Win2K server out of my place.
But I can do that without a good replacement of Exchange Server.
I've try many Linux Mail Server solution, the better solution (more complete) I've try is Samsung Contact, but it's not for Free
SME must find a solution to let the choice to the users :
Single Imap connection without pay of outlook connector.
Or Full Feature Outlook with pay for oultook connector
The Samba 3.0 is released with active directory support.
It's the first way for a good implementation of a real workgroup.

http://www.samsungcontact.com/en/downloads/?si=5b0ebe9f137a6d738f7876f20f322

[Tyrone Miles]

People keep over looking the fact that to use Microsofts API's to make a plugin for Outlook you have to pay a licence fee. There is no way to get around that (Unless you want to get a SCO style lawsuit against you if MS finds out.) Companies and/or developers are not going to take on those costs themselves. And that is the problem. (Because you can use Opengroupware just like exchange.)

There are many suites that fit the bill but all require plugins if you are going to use outlook.  You have Oracle Collaboration Suite, Samsung contact, Opengroupware, Communigate Pro and many others.  

You can go to Contribs.org for a how-to on Opengroupware but you need the Zide look plugin to get the calandar and GAL (Global Address book) functions to work like they do in exchange.  (Opengroupware would use the IMAP server already built into e-smith/Mitel)