MS Exchange server on FreeBSD?

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org wrote:
> On Sun, 20 Mar 2005, Anthony Atkielski wrote:
>
>> Duo writes:
>>
>>> And you failed to answer his question. Why not stop trying to avoid
>>> it by answering it.
>>
>> I did answer it.  I asked for a product that provides ALL the
>> features of Exchange.  And he surely knows what all of the features
>> of Exchange are, otherwise he could not say with confidence that
>> other UNIX products provide them.
>
> No, you didnt. He asked you *directly* what features we are
> talking about.
> you launched into a diatribe. Once again, you cop out by assuming he
> "surely" knows all of the features.
>
> Stop avoiding, go back to the original mail, and answer the question.
>

Duo and Anthony, I do know what features Exchange has because the
ISP I work at has a sister company that consists mainly of MCSE's who
install all manner of Microsoft products, including many Exchange
servers.  While I don't get involved in these generally, I do get
called in quite often when someone's Exchange server doesen't properly
talk to the rest of the mailservers on the Internet.  (ie: when
they are having problems sending and receiving Internet mail)  The
techs in the sister company think that I probably know how to solve
these problems better, obviously since I fly an ISP.  I of course am
more than happy to let them go spend their time fixing all manner of
Windows problems for their customers.

However I asked Anthony for a list of features because I am not going to
provide such a list only to have him go "what about [insert some
inconsequential
feature] your UNIX solution is lacking it so it must be crap"  In short,
if he wants to tell me what features he thinks are significant Exchange
features I can tell him what the UNIX equivalents are.  Otherwise I am
not going to play guessing games.

Anthony's original assertion was that -nothing- not even a combination of
programs on UNIX could supply all features that Exchange supplies.  Then
it changed into 'no one single program' when he realized he was on a thin
tree limb.

>
> And now that embrace and extend has worked, Exchange, sits fairly
> stagnant.
>

Actually I don't agree with that statement Duo.  Every new version of
Exchange has gotten bigger, fatter, more complex, slower, and harder
and harder to troubleshoot when there is a problem.  Sure there are
more features, but the price is the black box has gotten so large that
you cannot fix anything in it anymore.

>
> I prefer to take the choice out of the users hands. MDaemon
> virus scans
> mail as it comes in. Users never get a chance to possibly infect
> their system.
>

Today it is completely irresponsible to set up a corporate mailsystem
that lacks mandatory virus scanning.


Ted