![Ximian Ximian](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/ximian_64.png)
![Software Software](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/software_64.png)
![GNU is Not Unix GNU is Not Unix](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/gnu_64.png)
![Operating Systems Operating Systems](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/os_64.png)
![Windows Windows](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/windows_64.png)
![Apache Apache](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/apache_64.png)
Novell To Release Ximian Connector Under GPL 497
ashmodai9 writes "According to this article on LinuxToday.com as well as this press release directly from their site, Novell announced that its "Connector for MS Exchange Server would be integrated into Evolution 2.0 and made available as open source, beginning today with the current Connector 1.4." Apparently, downloads will be available for the current version of Evolution starting May 14th."
Thanks to reader crafterm, a snippet from Novell's Connector website: "With the Connector for Microsoft Exchange installed, Evolution functions as an Exchange client, enabling users to become full participants in company-wide group scheduling and other collaborative tasks. Linux and Solaris users can access public folders, Global Address Lists, email, calendar, task lists, and group scheduling information." Update: 05/11 17:58 GMT by T :
In related news, ChiralSoftware writes "Codeweavers' long-awaited sequel to Crossover 2.1 is here. Just like the old version, the new version lets you install MS Office on Linux desktops. The new version adds support for Outlook XP, Lotus Notes and Microsoft Project."
Apache? (Score:4, Interesting)
Don't wait until the 14th. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Don't wait until the 14th. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Don't wait until the 14th. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Don't wait until the 14th. (Score:5, Insightful)
The biggest thing that MS won't like about this, however, isn't the loss of a few seat licenses but that it opens up an avenue for migrating to Linux. You can convert piecemeal rather than having to switch everything at once.
Re:Don't wait until the 14th. (Score:4, Insightful)
I stand by my original statement - I have a real hard time believing that the Linux crew is going line up to fill out Purchase Orders to send Microsoft a hundred bucks a seat for each of the Linux installs they have across organization running Ximian email clients. Good luck convincing me otherwise. For the record, I really like Microsoft - this isn't about what I like / dislike, it is totally about envisioning the Linux users (the kind of Linux users that would be eager early adopters of this Exchange adapter) getting this to work and remembering 'oh yea, maybe I need to send MS a nice Benjamin Franklin plus change because
Buildling from source (Score:4, Interesting)
Be sure to specify the proper --prefix= to
A few things failed to link. This was solved by adding "-lresolve -lldap" to the proper _LIBS= line in the Makefiles. I only had to do that a couple times.
So, I have it installed and Evolution finds it. It seems to be hung up right now trying to connect to the Exchange server, but at least I got it installed.
Excellent news for the FOSS community! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Excellent news for the FOSS community! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Excellent news for the FOSS community! (Score:4, Insightful)
exactly. ms has made itself powerful in part by adopting the "embrace and extend" method of squishing competitors. glad to see the evolution people doing a little table-turning. the advantages that evolution will offer over outlook will be:
Re:Excellent news for the FOSS community! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Excellent news for the FOSS community! (Score:5, Interesting)
Sorry, but no. First, this 'exchange connector' depends on Outlook web access, so it is not TRULY an Exchange connector. It is more an exchange translator. Second by requiring Outlook web they will cause more sites (not less) to run Iis (internet information server) The only thing worse than a site running exchange (as an MCSE I know) is a site running exchange with Outlook Web enabled. They get all the power of exchange viruses coupled with the ease of IIS viruses for an optimal user experience Sarcasm I hope that they are pursuing a true Exchange connector.
Re:Excellent news for the FOSS community! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Excellent news for the FOSS community! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Excellent news for the FOSS community! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Excellent news for the FOSS community! (Score:3, Insightful)
I hope that they are pursuing a true Exchange connector., this is one big messed up protocol, I really do hope no wants to do that, it's scary (probably a waste of time).
Re:Excellent news for the FOSS community! (Score:3, Interesting)
that is what is needed. this is a great stop-gap. we need an OSS exchange server.
Re:Excellent news for the FOSS community! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Excellent news for the FOSS community! (Score:3, Insightful)
Furthermore, this creates a OSS project that now directly challeges Outlook
Not directly.
It needs to run under win32 to complete a transition pathway. Viz.,
In many instances users can experiment with free alternatives on Windows and later, the underlying OS can be traded out for whatever works best as a "hardware mana
Yay! (Score:5, Interesting)
Now I just have to convince our NT admin staff to turn on Outlook Web Access...
You should still purchase it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, remember you'll likely be buying some support which is cheaper than going it alone.
Obligatory Monty Python..... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Obligatory Monty Python..... (Score:4, Funny)
Yay.
custom contacts form and categories? (Score:4, Interesting)
And what about categories? In Windows you have to add them to the registry - there is no such thing in Linux.
I wonder what MS will think of this (Score:3, Interesting)
I also wonder how long it will be before we see some kind of open-source version of Exchange Server itself, replacing MS across the board for Exchange!
Re:I wonder what MS will think of this (Score:3, Informative)
Indeed: havoc in redmond (Score:5, Interesting)
This is THE single big reason to NOT switch away from Windows in Office Automation. THE. Wow.
I cannot believe, there are not 10.000 alarm bells ringing in redmond right now.
Notice the tarball already avail in source?
Notice how SOON it will be officially? This looks like a planned hit and run to me.
Prediction: Either MS treatens them and they pull it. But the source is out so -pbbbt-. Or expect the next big free software suit to arrive. And it will be pulled, but the source is out so -pbbbt-
If, on the other hand, MS plays nice about this, well, hell just froze over again.
"/Dread"
Re:Indeed: havoc in redmond (Score:3, Insightful)
However, Office is, from what I understand, MS's biggest source of revenue, so threatening that in any way likely isn't taken lightly or ignored in Redmond.
However, my personal bet is that they'll just quietly (at first) either:
1 - Prepare to pull some patent crud and hinder Connector and its deriva
Re:Indeed: havoc in redmond (Score:5, Informative)
Ximian Connector has been listed on Microsoft's website for a long time as a partner product, so they have no reason be suprised. Connector uses APIs which MS built in for the explicit purpose of interoperatbility.
Be clear on one thing (bolded for emphisis): In order to use Ximian Connector, you need to buy an Exchange CAL and a Windows CAL.
MS gets paid whether you are using Outlook or not -- in fact they get paid more because Unix cilents aren't using a free IMAP server or something.
Re:Indeed: havoc in redmond (Score:4, Insightful)
What grounds would MS have to threaten them? In this country, you still can't threaten someone simply for competing with your business, even if you're a monopoly. I don't read anywhere where they need MS's approval to keep this source available.
Re:Indeed: havoc in redmond (Score:3, Informative)
AFAIK Mozilla only works with Exchange Server via IMAP. Many companies turn off IMAP/POP3 on their servers. The only way to grab your mail is to use outlook or a connector.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'll load up mozilla now and try it.
Re:I wonder what MS will think of this (Score:5, Interesting)
1) OpenOffice.org is available for several platforms.
2) Ximian is working on putting Evolution integration into OpenOffice.org.
3) Ximian is porting Evolution 2.0 to Windows.
4) ???
4) I think that "Profit!" fits in here somewhere.
Nevertheless, it may be a very good strategy to begin to pull away the strict dependance upon MS Office and Outlook/Exchange. Microsoft still charges Exchange server "seat licenses", but this is just one small step that may very well make a significant impact, especially when MS Office itself is taken out of the equation, and can be replaced with OO.o and Evolution.
Novell is getting to be pretty crafty. Maybe we need to give them a bit more credit?
Great News (Score:5, Interesting)
Wonderful News (Score:5, Interesting)
This is just one less hurdle to overcome. I aplaud Novel's decision.
Wonderful, wonderful - alll we need is a server... (Score:5, Insightful)
The promise of exchange - integrated email & calendaring, locks a lot of companies in to MS software.
Say what you will, the ability for a clueless end-user to click "accept" on an email and automatically schedule themselves for a meeting is a Big Deal(tm).
Now, if only we had something affordable that could do that on the Linux server side, with clients on Linux, Windows and Mac platforms...and no, webmail doesn't cut it...
Is there anyone working on this?
-Steve
Re:Wonderful, wonderful - alll we need is a server (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Wonderful, wonderful - alll we need is a server (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Wonderful, wonderful - alll we need is a server (Score:5, Interesting)
Specially if you use something like Mono (plug, plug, plug, plug).
Love,
Miguel
Re:Wonderful, wonderful - alll we need is a server (Score:5, Interesting)
Sounds doable. I'm a developer on the Citadel [citadel.org] project, which has an open source groupware server. Now that the Connector is open source, we might give some serious consideration towards implementing the required WebDAV API in our web service.
Re:Wonderful, wonderful - alll we need is a server (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wonderful, wonderful - alll we need is a server (Score:3, Informative)
They would both be nice choices -- Miguel is largely responsible for Mono, however. So, you might say he is biased
Miguel on Mono [ondotnet.com]
Re:Wonderful, wonderful - alll we need is a server (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't consider myself clueless and it's a Big Deal(tm) for me.
I don't get paid for managing my calendar and I don't want to waste my time managing my calendar. If someone or something will do it for me or make my life easier, then all the better.
Bynari Insight Server (Score:4, Interesting)
This product (not free, but cheaper than Exchange) which, by an odd coincidence, I'm evaluating for purchase in an upcoming IT changeover, replaces an Exchange server and supports both standard and Outlook/Exchange clients with all the calendaring bullhockey PHBs can't seem to do without. They have a separate for-cost Webmail product as well, about which I know little.
Insight Server *looks* very good, and the independent info I've seen also likes it. (If anyone has direct experience good or bad, I'm interested in hearing of it.) I'm looking forward with glee to a MS-free server room...
Also, once upon a time, Bynari was making a free Exchange client, but something happened to that plan and they don't mention it on their site any more.
Re:Bynari Insight Server (Score:3, Informative)
We use some of the features, but not all of them. I've got no complaints. Remember, what you're really buying is the connector component which translates the Outlook info into "regular" mail that can be stored in Cyrus IMAP -- everything else is open source.
Their version-in-the-works will integrate Spamassassin and ClamAV too. Hopefully they'll have the hooks for other AV products as well.
Re:Wonderful, wonderful - alll we need is a server (Score:3, Informative)
Now, if only we had something affordable that could do that on the Linux server side, with clients on Linux, Windows and Mac platforms...and no, webmail doesn't cut it...
I'm not so sure webmail doesn't cut it. I recently rolled out a web based groupware server based on qmail/vpopmail/phpgroupware and the users couldn't be happier. They do everything they used to do on Exchange and I freed up a sizable chunk of IT's budget by no longer needing Win2k/2k3 Server license, Exchange license, and CALs. That add
Yes, enter Kolab! (Score:3, Interesting)
Cue Irrelevant Feature Complaints In.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Okay, you have your connector for MS Exchange right there in the main app now. NOW what's stopping you from seriously considering OSS as a possibility? And, I'm not talking about the 1.2% of the population that needs some bizarre, esoteric feature in Outlook or Word or whatever that 98.8% of the rest of the population didn't even know exists.
Seriously, folks. Linux ain't ready for the home desktop market, but it's high time more people start considering its viability for the desktop in the workplace, especially as lightweight replacements for Wintops that don't do all that much more than word processing and scheduling.
Take most of that money you've been blowing on MCSEs and A/V software, and pay a few competent *nix admins to come in and properly set up the systems, and you just may well alleviate some, or most, of that downtime. How much TCO did YOUR company have to add to Windows from Sasser, anyway?
Re:Cue Irrelevant Feature Complaints In.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Cue Irrelevant Feature Complaints In.... (Score:3)
"Blowing" money on MCSEs is right; a good (really good) *nix admin commands at least three times the salary of a good MCSE
Re:Cue Irrelevant Feature Complaints In.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh. So fire the receptionist and hire a competent one? It's called internal training. You should have a budget for it. There's no reason your receptionist needs to "learn Linux". You give her the apps, you give her the introduction, and you give her some time to settle into it, and that's that.
I'm sick of hearing that people need to "learn Linux" to migrate in the workspace. Hello? I'm surrounded by 350 co-workers and I think maybe 2 of them, not counting our meager IT staff, actually "knows Windows" but they still manage to do their jobs. The nice thing about "knowing Linux", however, is that if you're a competent admin you can make sure that the people who don't "know Linux" can't shoot their own toes off, or, at least, can't shoot anyone else. See, with Windows, not only can you shoot your own toes off if you don't "know Windows", but you can shoot everyone else in the general vicinity, and, on occasion, it just arbitrarily decides to shoot you even if you didn't do anything wrong.
I don't want to hear any crap about migration costs. Proof. Give me proof. Give me case studies. I'm tired of excuses. Maybe they're true, but they're always just excuses. It's just people afraid of a new thing and nothing more.
Re:Cue Irrelevant Feature Complaints In.... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, the problem with Linux is that your company is too cheap to hire a competent receptionist who can learn the basics of very similar software packages in-house in a reasonable amount of time? For your general word processing and spreadsheeting applications, Open Office isn't really that much different. If she can learn to blindly click buttons on Office, there's no reason she can't learn to do it on Open Office. If that were really true, we'd all still be using WordPerfect.
You can even train a mouse to do rudimentary, repetitive tasks. Just how much dumber are your receptionists?
On top of that, I can't imagine that the cost difference of hiring new receptionists, especially from a temp agency, are going to offset productivity gains and cost savings for the rest of the company if Linux is a viable consideration otherwise. If it does, maybe you need to consider firing your HR group and getting people who don't just knee-jerk hire every receptionist that walks in the door...
You're just making exuses. You must be a manager.
Re:Cue Irrelevant Feature Complaints In.... (Score:3, Insightful)
If this really is your reasoning, and if you really do manage on that kind of an attitude, I'd like to speak for your employees for a moment. If you don't really believe this, or it's not really your attitude, then disregard the comment. However, if I was an employee under someone like this, I'd think you were a complete idiot, I'd think you were totally full of shit, and I'd react accordingly every time you told me to do something. Just something to think abo
Re:Cue Irrelevant Feature Complaints In.... (Score:3, Insightful)
That's ridiculous, if you don't mind my saying so. If you're in the typical corporate structure, you'll either put up with whatever the company tells you to put up with, or you'll quit. If you quit over the operating system on your box, and you're the typical pencil-pusher type, then you're just an idiot.
It certainly does NOT have to hit both targets at once, and if it did, there'd have certainly been no Windows NT on corporate systems while Windows 95 was on the majority of home desktops. There were super
Re:Cue Irrelevant Feature Complaints In.... (Score:3)
My experience is from a programming perspective, not administrative. However, in that experience, I've learned that MSSQL (one of the few MS tools I don't find myself absolutely loathing) databases can be migrated to PostgreSQL very easily. NOTHING can be migrated to MySQL because, well, this is just my personal opinion (not a troll, dumbasses, just an unsupported opinion.. but go ahead and mod me down because you're a MySQL f
Paging Steve Jobs! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Paging Steve Jobs! (Score:4, Informative)
Awesome (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a full-time desktop Linux user, and not just for coding, but for every aspect of business, so all this stuff matters to me. This week is going to be a great week in Desktop Linux: Suse 9.1 and Crossover 3 are both coming out at about the same time, and both are huge improvements over what came before.
-------
WAP news [chiralsoftware.net]
Re:No Open Source equivalent? (Score:3, Informative)
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the Evolution connector uses WebDAV (i.e. HTTP) to connect through Outlook Web Access. It doesn't speak the MAPI protocol that Outlook itself uses to connect to Exchange. If you can't use the webmail internally, the connector won't work either...
Good for KDE folks, too (Score:5, Interesting)
Novell, you seriously rock. I know you're doing this for business reasons, but you just bought a lood of goodwill from a bunch of folks in IT departments. Thank you!
OT harp: Now, if KMail would just add IMAP filtering... ;-)
Re:Good for KDE folks, too (Score:5, Informative)
From the KDE 3.3 Release Plan [kde.org]:
Redesign filters to use Sieve internally. Allow editing of Sieve scripts on IMAP servers to get rid of the bug reports a la "KMail doesn't support IMAP folders for fitering"
Cached Mode? (Score:4, Informative)
One is cached mode - no more online/offline dicking around - it really works *well*. I have not had any screwy problems as of yet. (Basically Outlook caches your email - a seamless synchronization of your folders and it automatically detects a connected state)
The other thing is the RPC over HTTP - so I can get full exchange functionality over the internet, just as if I was using IMAP or POP standards, but with the full exchange server deal: contacts, calendars etc. It's really been handy - no opening VPN connections or using webmail to check my work mail on my laptop.
Are these two features available with Novell's solution? Even if they aren't I'm sure they will be. And having the option is great for the future even though, we are on the MS road for the time being. But for now, Exchange 2003 has worked very well, certainly better than our Linux pilot (Debian/FetchMail/Exim etc. with Thunderbird) - but our Linux pilot was kneecapped by having to operate in a mixed environment (which these new connectors would fix), and obviously going with Exchange cost us a whole lot more money! (Like $20K or thereabouts instead of free - consulting and hardware fees would've been required in both cases - and the Linux consulting was a lot cheaper believe it or not)
Re:Cached Mode? (Score:5, Interesting)
Virtual folders have been in Evolution forever. I have the same thing set up in Evolution and was shocked when I installed Outlook 2003 and they had it too. I think the interface is BUSY though. I hate the bars that break stuff out by date... it is distracting. The other stuff is interesting (but I have it in Evolution).
I don't know everything that the connector adds, but I am glad to get it... hopefully soon.
This isn't to say that Evolution doesn't have its rough edges. It DOES... but it is amazing for how relatively young it is. I have been using Outlook for years and it only recently got to be very usable. Evolution is a lot further in a shorter amount of time (love the RSS feed aggregator that is built in).
Silliness (Score:5, Insightful)
Makes me glad I don't have Novell stock. GroupWise earns them money. This does what?
Re:Silliness (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Silliness (Score:3, Insightful)
I can imagine that Novell want the parts of the FOSS/OSS community that uses the Evolution Connector to help in taking care of this code while Novell redirects its Ximian hackers to work on better integration of Evolution with GroupWise. The Connector was a big deal for Ximian but not a huge source of money for Novell, and they rather use the excellent hackers of Ximian to something that is better for the future of Novell.
Besides, the more corporation PC's t
Re:Silliness (Score:3, Insightful)
Thank you, Novell (Score:5, Interesting)
I can actually use my Linux box at work, without relying on my Windows box.
In my particular company, we use Exchange. While I *have* been able to get IE working with Wine, I haven't had any luck with Outlook at all - I need it for its calendar, which everyone else uses. With Evolution plus the connector, I can now throw away my old dusty NT box for good!
We've needed this for a long time, and I am very grateful for this.
Not for Exchange 5/5.5... (Score:3, Interesting)
Open SUSE and the new Distro scenario (Score:5, Interesting)
The big picture for commercial distros a couple years back was:
With RedHat going Fedora (and resigning its mindshare), it wasn't clear what the new scenario sould be. Mandrake was in my mind the great candidate to be the king of the overall distro (from freelading and home users through enterprise solutions), assuming they released more stable corporate versions.
Mandrake did its homework, and they announced a new development strategy with a community release and a later, more stable official release. They probably should add a slower (once a year) corporate option
But now Novell buys SUSE, opens it up and kicks the hell out of the Chess board. RedHat backs up and announces their (late) return to the desktop. Things are getting hot my friends :-)
Re:Open SUSE and the new Distro scenario (Score:4, Insightful)
I think you have missed some things. RedHat did not abandon the desktop, nor did they resign their mindshare. Their mindshare was reassigned to Fedora, and most of it stayed there. Fedora == RedHat. Yes, there's some differences, but Fedora is still what the old plain vanilla RedHat Linux was. The only difference is average joe user can no longer buy a support contract for it, which is no difference, because average joe user bought his RedHat CDs from LinuxCentral instead, without a support contract. (I know, because I did.)
So, RedHat didn't abandon the desktop. Meanwhile the RedHat Enterprise Linux product continues as before, and RedHat announces the new Desktop product for corporate users. Meanwhile Fedora continues to occupy the same niche as the old RedHat Linux.
I keep seeing these misconceptions repeated, so, one more time, everyone, all together: "Fedora == RedHat Linux."
One more step, a Win32 port of Evolution (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:One more step, a Win32 port of Evolution (Score:5, Informative)
I imaging the reference to WIMP is the WIMP-GTK [sourceforge.net] theme for GTK-on-Windows that mirrors the look of Windows.
This is how Gaim [sourceforge.net] handles their Windows "port" (thought I don't think "port" is really the rigtht word.
Want to thank Novell? BUY from them! (Score:5, Insightful)
BUY something from SuSE, Ximian or Novell!
Exchange Server alternatives or better options? (Score:5, Interesting)
BUT here's the obvious question: When will there be a viable challenger to Exchange Server? Am I missing something big? Last time I looked, most of the messaging solutions were missing a decent calendaring/schedule solution. Oracle's Collaboration Server is so involved/overkill (9cds for a basic install, iirc) that it's out of reach for most small/med orgs, and makes Notes look svelte. Groupwise was pretty obtuse & closed when I last looked. Open Groupware looks interesting (especially with the knoppix-ogo distro), but feels like Openoffice build 635... i.e. not fully baked.
When is a project going to come up with messaging, calendaring (via ical, mapi, etc etc), a repository that isn't as horrid as exchange public folders (maybe something modeled after/improving upon Opentext's Livelink), flexible event notifications (maybe simple stuff like alerts via email/SMS???). I have hopes for IBM's recent office tools announcement, but we'll see. A turnaround for Groupwise? Maybe? Options, I want options, dammit!
-Jon
Re:Exchange Server alternatives or better options? (Score:3, Interesting)
If you want a server, see if you can help get CAP out the door: IETF Calendaring & Scheduling group [ietf.org]
From what research I've done, everyone seems to think this will be the final draft, sets up a new project [kiv.zcu.cz]. Although, I am hopeful that the UW project [washington.edu] will be successful,
Yast open sourced and now Ximian Connector? (Score:5, Insightful)
About time.
How long till they open source NetWare and eDirectory?
CrossOver Office 3.0 now supports Notes 6.5.1 (Score:5, Informative)
CodeWeaver is happy to announce that today we have shipped version 3.0 of CrossOver Office.
We've added new, official, support for Outlook XP, Microsoft Project, and Notes 6.5.1. Unofficially, we're excited by users comments that far more applications are working now. These include programs like Framemaker and Microsoft Money. You can see the full list of changes here:
http://www.codeweavers.com/site/products/cxoffice
Further, this version marks some fairly ubstantial changes in our CrossOver Product line. First, we have merged the CrossOver Plugin product into the CrossOver Office product offering, so now all non server versions of CrossOver automatically provide
the Plugin functionality.
No excuses for IT now? (Score:5, Interesting)
For a basic office computer, there is now no excuse for IT to not use Linux, unless there is a specific Windows-only app that is needed.
Linux has any terminal you ever needed, OO.org, and now is fully Exchange-server compatable?
And it's all free?
The only thing that could possibly make your Linux TCO high now is perhaps re-training your tech staff who have undoubtedly been brought up on MS Windows if they went to college in the US, and that's not terribly expensive in the long run...
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
thunderbird? (Score:4, Interesting)
Some of us are still forced to use windows at the workplace for other reasons (Visio a big one), but would love to have an open win32 email client that can connect to exchange for calendaring reasons.
Re:thunderbird? (Score:3, Informative)
Now can Thunderbird provide a hook so that you could personally set up some module someone else writes to integrate with Exchange? There I have to think it's an easy yes. As long as Thunderbird doesn't incorporate GPL code and just provides
Coming soon from Microsoft... (Score:5, Troll)
Great -- but not fantastic -- news (Score:4, Insightful)
Specifically, Connector only works if Outlook Web Access is enabled on Exchange. There are a few problems with this approach in the real world.
First, OWA isn't enabled by default in Exchange. That is because, secondly, OWA costs extra for each user. Third, as a result, all places I've worked that used Exchange either disallowed using OWA at all or severly limited its use.
For instance, at my current company, OWA is enabled but only has a few client licenses and is therefore blocked from all internal IPs. It's intended use is for people that are traveling that want to access their email via a web browser.
So, yeah, Connector is very slick and very useful... just not as slick and as useful as the euphoric posts here seem to indicate!
Re:Great -- but not fantastic -- news (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Great -- but not fantastic -- news (Score:3, Informative)
Care to point out an MS article that dictates otherwise?
OpenGroupware is now an Exchange killer! (Score:3, Informative)
This is great news for OpenGroupware [opengroupware.org]. It's a full featured calendar, email and groupware server.
Previously, the only end to end open source solution you could set up with OpenGroupware was using Mozilla Calendar, another iCalendar app, or by using the built in web client. The Mozilla/iCalendar support is good, but "provides little "groupware" functionality and the support for it is to be consider experimental" [opengroupware.org].
There are plugins for Outlook and Evolution, but they were both not open source. It was actually pretty funny, an open source server, an open source client (evolution), and a closed source, very expensive connector to get the two to talk to each other! Look for "Ximian Connector" in their FAQ:
http://www.opengroupware.org/en/users/faq [opengroupware.org]
OpenGroupware will not be able to use this Evolution connector directly, but since it is open source, it will be adapted for this purpose. Helge Hess the main developer for OpenGroupware has said as much [opengroupware.org].
Opposite Problem (Score:4, Interesting)
I am looking to replace an exchange5.5 with something a little more controllable. Cost is an issue and I have around 50 clients. webmail a must. Currently, we are evaluating and will probably go with SUSE Openexchange.
But, here's the problem:
We also want to replace the outlook clients and I would love to switch to evolution. But, I cannot switch the clients off win2000 because of some propriatary programs that need to run.
The goal here is to be MS free within the next year. And, with the exception of some programs we are currently porting, If I can get the users off outlook I can switch them from 2000 to Linux or BSD and very few would notice the difference.
It took us 3 months to ween the users from MSOffice to Oo with very little complaints/training.
Any thoughts?
Re:Novell owns Evolution?? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Novell owns Evolution?? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Novell owns Evolution?? (Score:4, Informative)
Novell Buys Ximian [slashdot.org]
And later Novell buys SuSe [slashdot.org]
So obviously, since Evolution is a product by ximian, it is now owned by Novell
Re:Apache? (Score:4, Funny)
It's either an honest mis-click of the mouse, or Timothy wanted to remind everyone of just how GOD-AWFUL UGLY the Apache section color scheme is.
Re:Apache? (Score:5, Funny)
It does, it is just mislabled as "main".
Re:That's great news! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:That's great news! (Score:3, Insightful)
I actually don't expect Microsoft to get too bitchy about this. It seems to me like they're putting their money on virtual office integration. While Novell has a product in this space too, Microsoft's product will probably end up being more polished, easier for the average end-user to use, less se
Re:Macs. (Score:4, Informative)
To complete it, just build yourself a Connector package.
It's been tested internally at Ximian and Novell in the past, although it was determined it wouldn't be worthwhile to release it as a product. But now that it's free, you can do it.
a.
Re:Macs. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Novell is really serious (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Motives? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Motives? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Lack of feature? (Score:3, Interesting)
It seems to me that all the functionality of Outlook could be provided in a browser interface with a bit of clever stuff on the server. If that browser is not IE, then many of the problems simply go away. I don't see that anything Outlook provides can't be done in a better way.
I