MS Exchange server on FreeBSD?

[Christian Tischler]

Anthony Atkielski wrote:

>Christian Tischler writes:
>
>  
>
>>The server side should be managed by BSD, but the client side is most
>>surely an heterogeneous group.
>>    
>>
>
>The server side of what?  It all depends on the complete architecture of
>your IT infrastructure.  For some situations, sendmail and qpopper are
>all you'll ever need.  For other situations, you'll end up buying racks
>of servers running Exchange.
>
>However, from what you've said thus far, it doesn't sound like Exchange
>would be the right choice.
>
>  
>
>>So a solution to somehow emulate/simulate an exchange server on an box
>>(or cluster of sql horde what ever servers), and import this e.g. 
>>calendar data into a BSD solution. As I understand the so far mentioned
>>products, these are quite capable of doing so. Then there would be an 
>>easy solution to different likes in clients.
>>    
>>
>
>Do they really need a calendar function?
>
>Remember, once you start building this sort of stuff, it rapidly gets
>more and more complicated.  You might end up at some point realizing
>that it would have all been easier with Exchange.
>
>If you _must_ have functionality equivalent to Exchange, then run
>Exchange.  But if you don't need that functionality, run something
>simpler.
>
>For what it's worth, even fancy Outlook clients can access standard
>SMTP/POP servers.  You can build a backend using only simple software,
>and then consider something more complex only if and when users
>absolutely demand it.  If you are forced into implementing a very
>complex solution, consider going to Exchange rather than trying to
>cobble something together, or you might spend the next ten years trying
>to get it all to work.
>
>  
>
Just to point out what I need, and then you probably will understand why 
I started this in the first place. I need to synchronize peoples (in the 
beginning only a few) calenders. As they all use Outlook I wanted to 
keep things easy on them.
As I really fancy FreeBSD, I started to look for a way to combine both 
"worlds"...

Christian