Microsoft is working hard to make sure the latest version of its e-mail, calendaring and messaging server, Exchange 12, appeals to both enterprise IT administrators and end users. The first beta of the product, released earlier this month, offers enhanced administrative controls as well as a unified messaging feature that will deliver fax, voice mail, e-mail and speech recognition.
There is nothing new: Microsoft adds new features and ignores security.
We got rid of the anonymous posters, but not the trolls.
I think it a fair remark, particularly in light of the .wmf WTF.
We must give everyone some credit at some point…
This looks like a very featureful, powerful solution.
Peronally, I’m wondering if there are any FOSS tools that can rival/approach Exchange…Or, any projects attempting to do so?
I’m wondering if there are any FOSS tools that can rival/approach Exchange…
Not right now, no.
Or, any projects attempting to do so?
Sure. OpenExchange, OpenGroupWare, Hula, the KDE groupware thing funded by the German government, etc. etc.
Unfortunately, none of them really comes close to doing everything Exchange does as well as Exchange does them. Are there things that do e-mail better? Of course! Are there things that do group calendaring better? Probably. Are they free? Maybe, but probably not, and almost certainly not if you want to use Outlook as a client (which, despite the OSS trolls, is what most business people are going to want to use).
One of the articles linked from the article mentions Sun’s JMS, which looks pretty neat. At the same time, it’s awfully expensive, moreso than Exchange, if you don’t have a big user base. I was pricing things out for an office of around 80 users, and Microsoft actually came out cheaper than both Novell and Sun over a five-year period, even with SA.
If you have less than ten users, SBS is kind of a no-brainer.
Unfortunately, none of them really comes close to doing everything Exchange does
In what way? You’ve just listed the options, particularly Kolab, and you’ve listed no reasons at all why Exchange is supposedly better. All these people say when you list perfectly feasible options for Exchange is ‘Errrr, they don’t come close’, and a worried, terrified look comes over their faces. I’ve seen it many, many times.
Maybe, but probably not, and almost certainly not if you want to use Outlook as a client
If you use Kolab it will be cheaper, Outlook or not ;-).
If you have less than ten users, SBS is kind of a no-brainer.
If you have less than ten users (and especially if you’re a business that will expand) you have to have no brain to use SBS – really. There are far, far, far cheaper ways of getting what you need done and the innovative small companies are making money out of it. I will never, ever expect a customer to cough up money for no reason whatsoever when they add new employees to their network, nor will I expect them to do so if it’s necessary to add more servers.
Meanwhile all the Microsoft suppliers are scratching their heads wondering why their customers are complaining that they are so expensive, customers complaining about the software that they’re buying and why they’re not making any money out of it.
I never cease to be amazed by the amount of clueless idiots out there putting expensive crap into peoples’ businesses. If you’re incurring any of the above costs you’re not competitive by a very, very, very long way and it really doesn’t matter how great the latest version of Exchange is.
Edited 2006-01-03 13:37
In what way? You’ve just listed the options, particularly Kolab, and you’ve listed no reasons at all why Exchange is supposedly better.
It’s overall integration and guarantee that it’ll work pretty much as it’s supposed to, including the client programs. This is especially true if you’re using Windows. I have no doubt that if you’re using KDE as the client, all of the features will work as they’re intended.
If you use Kolab it will be cheaper, Outlook or not ;-).
You haven’t priced things out, lately. The “free” clones don’t always end up being cheaper, especially if you have a bit of an installed MS base already. From scratch? Granted.
If you have less than ten users (and especially if you’re a business that will expand) you have to have no brain to use SBS – really. There are far, far, far cheaper ways of getting what you need done and the innovative small companies are making money out of it. I will never, ever expect a customer to cough up money for no reason whatsoever when they add new employees to their network, nor will I expect them to do so if it’s necessary to add more servers.
Sure. And if a customer didn’t need all the features of Exchange, I’d agree with you. But in a lot of circumstances, getting the other alternatives to work, and stay working, end up being more expensive.
I never cease to be amazed by the amount of clueless idiots out there putting expensive crap into peoples’ businesses. If you’re incurring any of the above costs you’re not competitive by a very, very, very long way and it really doesn’t matter how great the latest version of Exchange is.
Again, it all depends on the individual situation. I wouldn’t recommend Exchange for an office full of Macs, or where there was an existing Groupwise installation. But in a small professional office, where use of Windows is an absolute requirement (people bitch about this, but there are often applications for which there are simply no comparable free replacements, or even commercial Linux equivalents exist….to deny that is to deny reality), SBS is a pretty good buy. MS is also cheap for rather big organizations. It’s the midsized businesses that get screwed.
“I never cease to be amazed by the amount of clueless idiots out there putting expensive crap into peoples’ businesses. If you’re incurring any of the above costs you’re not competitive by a very, very, very long way and it really doesn’t matter how great the latest version of Exchange is.”
Valuable hint: The customer picks there own poison.
Am I going to stand there and argue with a customer who would like to run Exchange? Not a chance in hell.
Since someone asked, there is an Exchange alternative available from SuSE/Novell. See:
http://www.novell.com/products/openexchange/
However, the website appears to be down for maintenance as I write this.
>Something for All
oh yeah, where is my shared calendar support for my Mac, my Linux laptop, and my Solaris desktops?
> One of the articles linked from the article mentions Sun’s JMS, which looks pretty neat. At the same time, it’s awfully expensive, moreso than Exchange, if you don’t have a big user base. I was pricing things out for an office of around 80 users, and Microsoft actually came out cheaper than both Novell and Sun over a five-year period, even with SA.
Sun’s Messaging suite is actually a *lot* cheaper than Exchange, the pricing structure has changed not so long ago, which makes the Sun Messaging Server an extremely competitive product. For about a year now if you have fewer than 100 users, you could use the product for free. With the recent changes they made it even better — if you don’t want support, you can use the product for free. It also offers you a great choice of platforms to choose from — Solaris SPARC/X86, Linux, HP-UX and Windows. Also remember that Sun announced that perhaps all of the products in the JES stack will be open-sourced soon and that will include the Messaging Server, so soon you may have the sources to product. I’ve been using the Sun Messaging Server for a few years now and I can say it is an extremely good product that does pretty much everything better that Exchange, it even integrates seamlessly with Outlook, so the users using Outlook will never know that it is not Exchnage sitting on the back end. Check it out, it is a great product and a great way to break away from MS lockin.
>I’m wondering if there are any FOSS tools that can rival/approach Exchange…
There are some open source stuff getting VERY close, and I would say in 2006 there will be 1 or 2 viable open source alternatives with full functionality as exchange.
BUT, there are several non-opensource alternatives avilable that run on Linux, Solaris etc that DO PROVIDE full exchange replacement functionality. So you can break free of Microsoft at least if you want and put up say a larger scaling system like a 32-64 cpu solaris server. They are generally MUCH cheaper than Exchange on a per-seat basis too and you get all the functionality such as shared folders, global address book, shared calendards, full outlook compatibility etc.
1) http://www.samsungcontact.com/index.php
2) http://www.bynari.net/
3) http://www.opengroupware.org/en/index.html (It is OPENSOURCE but you have to buy the commercial plugin for it to work will full OUTLOOK functionality: http://www.skyrix.de/en/verkauf/preisliste.php)
4) http://www.stalker.com/content/cgp_core.html
“There are some open source stuff getting VERY close, and I would say in 2006 there will be 1 or 2 viable open source alternatives with full functionality as exchange.”
Your idea of VERY close, and my idea of VERY close, and not VERY close together.
At the moment, I don’t consider any of the alternatives close to the functionality of Exchange 5.5, much less Exchange 2003.
Someone posted this above, but there is a VERY good exchange alternative and best of all: “It’s Free!” . Sun’s Java Enterprise Server completes the pictures and it runs on:
– Solaris (SPARC/x86)
– Linux (I am running it on CentOS 4.2 right now)
– Windows
– HP-UX
The users are all in an LDAP Server, there is calendaring, outlook support (via outlook connector – FREE), Messaging Server, Anti-SPAM [ I use it here with amavisd-new and SpamAssassin but ofcourse you can use Brightmail if you want ], and the most cool feature is that the user’s mail filtering sieve rulesets are actually kept in the user’d LDIF!! (Seriously Cool!!). It does what everything exchange does and no one can beat the price.
You can get your own copy at:
http://www.sun.com/software/javaenterprisesystem/index.xml
OTOH, credit is due to Microsoft for making Exchange. Exchange 2003’s OWA is one of the finest piece of software I have ever used. I went “WHOA” when I used it first (Yes, I know about it not working with anything but IE).
As for security, Exchange 2003+ have been pretty darn good for security. Seriously, how many remote IIS 6.x exploits with Exchange have you seen vs. even Apache (as an example). There is a very good website if you use Exchange or are planning to deploy it:
MSExchange – http://www.msexchange.org/
-Bruno
http://www.open-systems.org/users/bruno/