Opinions on Exchange options

redhat redhat at fayelectric.com
Tue Apr 13 16:51:25 UTC 2004


On Tue, 2004-04-13 at 11:11, Alexander Dalloz wrote:
> Am Di, den 13.04.2004 schrieb redhat um 17:42:
> 
> > First - forgive the length of this post...I am going to throw this out
> > there for whomever wants to respond.  I have an Exchange 5.5 server
> > which is my PDC (primary authentication and email - internal only)
> > running on server 2000.  Last year it crashed because it mysteriously
> > forgot that it was the PDC and I had to rebuild it from scratch.  Now, I
> 
> Starting with Windows 2000 there are no dedicated PDC and BDCs any more
> ;)
> 
> > am having serious issues with Exchange mail and am getting tired of it. 
> > I am required to offer calendaring, shared contacts, yadda, yadda,
> > yadda.  I have looked at SuSE's offering and have also looked into a
> > product called bynari.  Both seem to offer the right stuff - at a hefty
> 
> Asking about SuSE products on a Fedora/Redhat mailing list is at least
> curious.
> 
> > price - comparable to M$.  I don't mind the price but I want to be sure
> > that in another year I am not back in the same position with problem on
> > a different platform.  I don't have anyone on staff that can set up
> > Sendmail and I don't have the time to learn it.  I need something that
> > is intuitive enough to set up and administer.  If you are familiar with
> > either of these products I would appreciate pros and cons.  If you have
> > a different product that does not require 3 brains to setup and
> > administer I would appreciate that as well.
> > thanks,
> > DF
> 
> You was not specific enough about your needs, whether you want a system
> that runs and feel for users like an Exchange server or whether they
> could live with other solutions as well. On the other hand you said very
> few about your skills.
> 
> There are some products on the market - of course not all for free -
> trying to bring the customer a cheaper solution, like the HP Openmail
> and Samsung's OpenContact. An advanced groupware tool is
> http://www.opengroupware.org/, which is open source and you would only
> have to pay for the MAPI connector.
> 
> But let me speak a word in general: that all depends on the knowledge of
> the people setting up and administer the system! A server and in special
> a mail server is something you have to know a lot about. The less you
> know the more you will have to pay for support by foreign support crews.
> That is a general rule. And a mail server is no playground, knowing few
> about the "inner life" you will be lost, especial if something does not
> work as you wish. In conclusion: if you do not know anything about mail
> server and groupware solutions on *NIX (UNIX/Linux) systems and have no
> will nor time to get deep into the things you might better stay with
> (bloody, standards neglecting) Exchange.
> 
> Alexander
> 
The reason I posted to this list about a SuSE product was because I
wanted opinions from people who were not "predisposed" to SuSE.  If I
wanted that I would have gone to their list.  I just wanted some input
from other users out there.  I am a small shop of just two techs - I am
the only one who knows anything about setting up servers - be it Linux
or Windows.  I also function as a manager and do not have time to add
"one more thing" onto my incredible list of things to do.  I admit, I am
not a mail administrator - never have been - but I do have a problem and
trust the input of this list.  I read this list daily for that very
reason.
thanks for your input.





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