Re: [SLE] Avoiding Microsoft Exchange Server

On Mon, 2006-05-15 at 15:48 -0400, Paul Abrahams wrote:
I'm doing some pro bono computer consulting for my local municipal offices,
and as part of that project I've installed a Linux server that does automated
backup (hurrah for rsync) and also provides a file repository. However, the
town wants to get a Microsoft server because some of the network application
they're getting (municipal taxes, accounting, etc.) assume that environment.
If you tell us which applications they're wanting, we may be able to
help. I don't see you mentioning Exchange in the mail, so I can only
guess that it's the usual shared calenders&contacts (that work with
Outlook) they're after. For that there are a host of groupware
solutions that will give you that, ranging from free to more expensive
than Exchange itself.

Software licensing issues aside, I cannot really complain too much about
the more recent versions of Exchange. I have it running at a site
behind a postfix box, and I've had no hassles so far. Took a while to
figure out how to get it to play nicely (some mailboxes are on the Linux
box, some on Exchange), but it's been almost a year now.

On the other hand, I have Scalix 10 running at our office, and that's
been working nicely as well. It has a few limitations, which may be a
show stopper, or completely unimportant to you, depending on your needs.

For financials there are a few options. Over here there is a package
that is quickly becoming the industry standard. It runs on Windows (the
client side), and uses Pervasive SQL or MS SQL on the back end. Nothing
except for the database actually runs on the server. But I haven't seen
it run on linux yet, because there are licensing options available for
the windows version of pervasive that isn't available for the linux
version (last time I checked), which makes a big difference for smaller
companies.

But let us know what the exact needs are. Chances are someone will have
done it :-)

Hans


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