[LUG] Replacing an Exchange Server

[Freddie Cash]

On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 1:42 PM, Neskie Manuel <neskiem at gmail.com> wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone has any experience switching an Exchange
> Server..  While still using MS Outlook as the main e-mail client.
>
> I think MS Outlook's IMAP features have been underdeveloped compared
> to the Exchange features, is a bit of an understatement, and I don't
> think that MS is very keen on getting Outlook to work with different
> mail servers.
>

Outlook's IMAP support is pretty horrid, to say the least.  The two biggest
issues you will face are:
  *  hitting the limits of the PST format (more than 16384 messages in a
folder, more than 2 GB file size, etc)
  * "Move to Trash", "Delete to Trash" no longer work, messages are just
flagged as "to be deleted" and left in the original folder.  Nothing is
actually deleted until you "Expunge deleted messages" or "Purge deleted" on
each folder

Quite a pain.  Much less pain to migrate to a proper IMAP client, with a
separate calendaring app.

We are running a mixed Outlook 2003/2007.
>
> I think an interesting solution would be.
>
>  * Postfix/Exim as the MTA
>  * Courier/Cyrus as the IMAP frontend
>  * Roundcube/Squirrelmail as a webmail client
>  * Apache/WebDAV or WebCAL as the calendering.
>
> There was a question on Linux Journal about this very same question.
> I think there is a lot of thought being put into this at various
> levels in different open source projects.  I know there is Zimbra, and
> other solutions out here like that, but it would be nice to solve this
> in the UNIX way of having one software product do one thing really
> well.
>

Zimbra is the best solution to this issue, as there is an Outlook Connector
available, that configures Outlook as if it were connecting to an Exchange
server, providing full access to e-mail, calendars, contacts, tasks, etc,
all with the ability to share with other users.  However, this is only
available in the paid versions (Network Edition).

Other groupware servers like Scalix, Merak, and Novell's one also provide
Outlook Connectors.

If you want a smooth Outlook experience, you need something with a MAPI
Connector to make Outlook work like it's using Exchange.

Otherwise, you'll want to find a better IMAP client.

-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwcash at gmail.com
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