Topic: Scalix Mail and Calendaring Server with SME

[sahosting]

Hi everyone,

Is there a chance to skip our current email system to replace it with Scalix Mail and Calendaring Server.

http://www.scalix.com/products/scalixserver.html

It really is amazing and has a free community build for RedHat or Suse... I'm sure that it wouldn't be too bad to plug into SME but would take SME to a total new level of compatibility and user experience.

any thoughts?
thanks,
curtis =)

[CharlieBrady]

Is there a chance to skip our current email system to replace it with Scalix Mail and Calendaring Server.

http://www.scalix.com/products/scalixserver.html

That would undoubtedly be a lot of work. Are you volunteering to do any of it?

It really is amazing and has a free community build for RedHat or Suse...

It's been discussed here before:

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=22684.msg118220#msg118220

It appears to be a non-starter because there isn't a license which allows redistribution.

I'm sure that it wouldn't be too bad to plug into SME ...

You'd need to actually try it before you could reasonably make such a statement.

[gordonr]

It appears to be a non-starter because there isn't a license which allows redistribution.

Yes. I've been in contact with Scalix and there are two non-starter parts:

- The Java package needs to be downloaded directly from Sun
- The Scalix package needs to be downloaded directly from Scalix

Both of these make it impossible to package and integrate. Unless we have a license to distribute, we can't include it in the distro.

I'd like to see something like Scalix in, but in order for it to happen, we need to get the appropriate legal teams to change their licenses.

[tandum]

Sorry to drag up old news, but, has anyone got this to go under 7.xbeta before I try, it looks great.

[deanj]

I have been experimenting with it but a command line install isn't supported by the community version so it is a bit time consuming.
Also I find the administration a bit cumbersome because it is all command line.

Another product I am looking at is Zimbra www.zimbra.com  
it has browser based administration and the browser based client is very classy.

[RonM]

Wow, Zimbra does look very good - has a complex, but basicly Mozilla license, and a lot of functionality. Outlook integration, too. The  "Serious Business" (TM) (Reg) (c) behind it looks to have several experienced people involved, and some serious funding. Thanks for mentioning it.

On the flip side, the company appears to be only a few months old (?). It seems use Java/Tomcat (but I don't see it in the prerequisites list):

Minimum server requirements
• Intel/AMD CPU 1.5 GHz
• 1 GB RAM
• 5 GB free disk space for software and
logs
• Additional disk space for mail storage

Recommended server requirements
• Intel/AMD CPU 2.0GHZ+
• 2 GB RAM
• 10 GB free disk space for software and
logs (SATA or SCSI for performance,
and RAID/Mirroring for redundancy)
• Additional disk space for mail storage
Operating System Either
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Version 4,
Update 2
or
• Fedora Core 3
The operating system must be configured
as described in this guide. See the
appropriate section in this guide.

Other Applications The server must also have the following installed:
• libidn. For internationalizing domain
names in applications (IDNA)
• cURL. A command line tool for
transferring files with URL syntax
• fetchmail. A remote-mail retrieval and
forwarding utility used for on-demand
TCIP/IP links.
• GMP. GNU Multiple-Precision Library.
• compat-libstdcc++-33. Compatibility
Standard C++ libraries.

Miscellaneous
• SSH client software to transfer and
install the Zimbra Collaboration Suite
software. See Note below.
• Access to DNS server
• Computer with either Mozilla Firefox
1.0 or Internet Explorer 6.0 or later

Note that it also uses PostFix MTA.

Very interesting app, but... looks like a lot of work to integrate (as Charlie says above). Maybe someone might want to set it up as an add-in, to see if people are interested? A lot of questions around what to do with the existing mail functionality on SME, if so.

RonM

[tandum]

I have been experimenting with it but a command line install isn't supported by the community version so it is a bit time consuming.
Also I find the administration a bit cumbersome because it is all command line.

Another product I am looking at is Zimbra www.zimbra.com  
it has browser based administration and the browser based client is very classy.

I also got the no x-server message when installing scalix. I really don't have the time to screw around with it. The scalix site claims it has a web interface for config but I also see command line examples for admin tasks in the documents.

I did install zimbra on centos 4.2. It installed ok but that machine hangs while loading zimbra on boot. I only have an old P3-450 to test with at the moment and it's low on ram as well. I'm definately not paying for more SDram at this stage of the game

Does zimbra do group tasks? I didn't see that in the demo.

[calisun]

Are we not able to add applications to current Horde?
Since we already use horde for email, we should be able to add suite of web applications, see:

http://www.horde.org/
and
http://www.horde.org/projects.php
and
http://www.horde.org/source/modules.php

But I must admit that zimbra looks more refined and more apealing to the end user. If zambra has groupware functions, it might be a good alternative.

[Marcor]

Zimbra is of course a must. The whole AJAX technology is a revolution to move application from the windows desktop to the (SME?) server. There is no choice to neglect this technology.

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2EE/AJAX/

[RonM]

Hi Marcor - nice overview of AJAX; thanks for posting the link

Personally, I like the potential of AJAX, and Zimbra looks to be a good instantiation of it. The promise is great, rich clients; without all the client app hassles, easy upgrades, cross-plaform functionality, built-in collaboration - the list goes on and on.

But there is most certainly the choice to "neglect this technology". So far, it is mostly a copy of existing client-side applications. Its security is questionable. The control of its functionality is centralized. Its robustness in erratic connectivity scenarios is untested. It has great potential for abuse by increasingly domineering corporate interests - at least in America Inc. (Google's refusal to hand over search records to the Justice Dept. is one bit of good news, here).

So while the potential is great, so are the risks. A certain skepticism and a careful approach is justified. Open-source and an open community in action become more important than ever.

RonM