email and messanging

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Sean Murphy
> Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 9:41 AM
> To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: email and messanging
>
>
> Is there a project that anyone is using that has the features of
> groupwise, openexchange or exchange?  Features such as calender/todo
> list  that other users can add to another users, public folders, etc...
>
>

http://www.horde.org

Be warned, while it's in the FreeBSD ports collection, the ports
collection
only gets you about 90% of the way to having it up and running.  It is
also every bit as complex to configure as MS Exchange is.  If you have
never worked with Horde or mysql, plan on spending a week on getting up
and running on the administration of it and read -every bit- of
documentation
on it.

But once you do get it online it is well worth it.  The interface on the
latest stuff is every bit as slick as the interface on Exchange.


http://www.opengroupware.org/

This is another effort which, like Lotus Notes, has everything but the
kitchen sink stuffed into it and is as equally incomprehensible.  Phrases
in the description like: " provide access to all functionality and data
through open XML-based interfaces and APIs" I am not sure I even
understand.

What it appears to be is the idea that you build this thing and stuff it
in in place of your Exchange server, then use all the free Outlook
clients
that come with MS Office to connect to the server and provide front ends.
Thus you get the benefit of the slick MS interface and software at the
user end, along with the benefit of not having to spend a pile of money
on
Microsoft CAL's and a mountain of money on an Exchange server.

I'm not sure I completely agree with this approach - I'd rather see no
dependencies on Microsoft's front ends - but I suppose denying Redmond
their $10K for a piggy server is a good thing.

Ted