Linux Alt to MS exchange?

[kingjimbob]

Is there a linux based (free) alternative to MS exchange....

I want to be able to set up internal email for a local group. no external mail is required.


Any feedback would be much appericated

[penguin.ch]

Re: Linux Alt to MS exchange?

You paid for M$, so why not pay for something useful: http://www.open-xchange.com/

[kingjimbob]

Re: Linux Alt to MS exchange?

This is a Uni project to see if it is possible to use free open-source software as a direct replacement for a Windows Server.

I.e. Settings up a Linux box with internal email for groups, providing firesharing, printer server, intranet etc.

So far things are not going so well....

Have investigated alot of the exchange alternatives such as Open-exchange, Zarafa etc. But paying kind of defeats the objective.

Can sendmail be configured to send internal mail between users in a workgroup?

[javierrivera]

Re: Linux Alt to MS exchange?

Zimbra is hot app in the Exchange-replacement bussiness.

http://www.zimbra.com/

I haven't tried it, but it's all hot now.

Personally, I have been using web-based calendars for a while. Dotproject is one of my favourites. It's PHP code is quite clean and it's very easy to make simple personalizations even to a someone as ignorant of PHP as me.

For email, I usually just use postfix and kolab as the admin interface.

Javier.

[kingjimbob]

Re: Linux Alt to MS exchange?

kool thanks for the reply! i keep coming back to this Zimbra! the only thing that put me off was that its trail based and i really wanted to prove that you could use free open-source replacements to Microsoft products.

Javier you postfix soultion is this for sending and recieveing external email? or can it provide internal email solution aswell?

[javierrivera]

Re: Linux Alt to MS exchange?

To be completely sincere I don't know what is the difference between internal and external mail.

I never made any difference.

Javier.

[kingjimbob]

Re: Linux Alt to MS exchange?

Sorry i may not have made myself very clear.

This would be the scenerio. A office work group with no internet connection.
The network would be designed with NT/XP workstations in mind and a Linux Server.

The proposal is that the Linux server would provide email to the work group (such as MS exchange does, to any body who creates an account). Futhermore, the server would provide file sharing and printing capabilities.

I am starting to get the picture that this may not be possible

[javierrivera]

Re: Linux Alt to MS exchange?

A normal SMTP server will work without an internet connection fine.

You should give it a domain, anyone will work as it's not conected to the net, like mysite.com. It will server any mail to his own domain internally.

I mean if someone on the internet net send a mail to pepe@mysite.com it will be delivered to the local pepe mailbox if it exists.

Printing and file sharing are easily done from linux. You can even host the windows drivers for the printer in the linux box to make installing a printer easy. But to be honest, if it's a new office, I will probably prefer to buy network enabled printers than setup a printer server.

Javier.

[Tuoqui]

Re: Linux Alt to MS exchange?

Well the easiest way would to take the built-in mail utility in Linux (the one that you get when you use pine from the command line) and build a better front end interface for it if it does not already have one.

[dumas33]

Re: Linux Alt to MS exchange?

Did you try egroupware?
Not exactly ms exchange but very similar. It is more web based but you can synchronise calendar, addresses and to-do with outlook and kontact.
Task assignment works only via web, and kalendar synchronisation with kontact is very bugy at the moment.
But it seems everything more or less OK in outlook.