Re: [MLUG] Drop-in MS Exchange replacement

[Jason McIntosh <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

My .02 :)
First, sadly exchange does do some things no one else does.  Primarily, the
integration.  First, this allows integrated security.  This means I can
assign someone else in my office delegate rights, and they can see folders
and email on my system.  Also, exchange works with a full calendaring system
and shared scheduling system.  Granted, MeetingMaker might have done this,
but I don't know many applications that can handle a global addressbook that
allows common scheduling or other information to be found without having to
go through four different services, and four different logins.

Now, on the other hand, there could be a piece-meal solution.  You could use
a WebDAV system or similar for folder management, do a distributed calendar
object such as iCalendar (but, you're still going to have problems when
someone else modifies your calendar, plus sharing and comparing calendars
between users), use LDAP for client configuration, and IMAP for email
information.

Again, the trick to this all deals with administration, which is a lot more
difficult on a distrubted system.  General integration and configuration
with clients as well as setting up user accounts is much more difficult when
you have four or five different systems.  Also as most users use Outlook,
and that Outlook aside from being a memory hog, security risk from hell,
etc. is actually a decent groupware system.  It's by far not compared to
Kmail perhaps in stability, or Evolution in some of it's features, but on
the other hand, I've found that Evolution and Kmail definitely have some
disadvantages with regards to stability, implementation, support, etc.

If I had my wish however, this is what would happen.  First, the mapi32
protocol would be released, so maybe ways could be found to optimize it, and
write plugins for Outlook on other systems that aren't overly complex.
Further, allow applications OTHER than Outlook to work with the exchange
server.  This means Eudora and other groupware applications.  This stems
from the fact that the stupid ActiveX controls are often more buggy than
they're worth.  Last, better iCalendar and other common protocol support to
allow integration with other services.

Well, this is considerably more than .02, but oh well.  I'll end it now with
this last comment:  Yes, there are other solutions than Exchange, but how
many of them work as well as Exchange is finally working now, but still
allow the same feature set.  There's maybe two or three out there, Lotus,
OpenMail or whatever it is, and perhaps Novell's Groupwise software.  Of
those, Novell seems to be slowly dying, and the Samsung Openmail (from what
I remember reading) requires even more installation and configuration.

Just my $2.00 ;)
Jason


On 12/10/02 10:09 AM, "Spurling, Shannon" <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:

> Meeting maker uses a centralized server to maintain a master calendar. E-mails
> are just notices. All meetings are coordinated through the meeting maker
> server. We used to run meeting maker before we got exchange. In fact, we just
> used Eudora to pop or imap mail off an SMTP server, and meeting maker for
> appointments. Then we were told to use exchange like every one else was. SMTP
> was extremely stable but meeting maker did have problems every once in a
> while. Exchange will slow down your whole machine though.
> 
> Shannon Spurling
> WAN Engineer -Specialist
> 
> MOREnet, Network Services, Core Network
> 3212 LeMone Industrial Blvd.
> Columbia, MO 65201
> 
> Main:(573) 884-7200   Fax:(573)884-6673
> 
> EMAIL:PROTECTED
> EMAIL:PROTECTED
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Miller [mailto:EMAIL:PROTECTED]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 9:56 AM
> To: EMAIL:PROTECTED
> Subject: Re: [MLUG] Drop-in MS Exchange replacement
> 
> 
> On Tue, 10 Dec 2002, Duane Hargus wrote:
> 
>> On Monday 09 December 2002 22:34, Mike Miller wrote:
>>> 
>>> I really would like to know about the advantages of integration
>>> because I would like to be able to make sensible recommendations for
>>> software purchases in our division at U Minnesota.
>> 
>> The integration comes in handy when, for instance, you want oto schedule
>> a meeting.  You check everyone (from your address book or contact list)
>> into your meeting planner (schedule) and see from their calendars that
>> they will all be available next Friday from 2:30 to 4:00.  You schdule
>> the meeting and the software will send meeting requests to all the
>> prospective participants.  they either accept or decline as they see
>> fit.  All from the same software package, without having to rekey all
>> the same info from pine/mutt/etc.
> 
> 
> So Exchange is able to use e-mail responses to directly confirm
> appointments.  I wonder what this is like.  I wouldn't want to get
> messages from everyone unless I had to.  I would prefer to separate
> communications about appointments from other communications.
> 
> I have MeetingMaker, but I haven't used it much yet.  It looks like it can
> send e-mail announcements, but I'm not sure of how it confirms
> appointments or accepts cancelations.  I'll have to look into it.
> 
> Thanks for the info!
> 
> Mike
> 
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