Very Computer

My company has an NT/95 network using a Linux/Samba server.  I love the
server it works just like an NT server without the headache.

My boss asked me about MS Outlook the other day and how we could share
scheduals, faxes, etc... with it.  I told him that was a function of
Exchange Server for windows NT server.  Is there a clone of Exchange server
out there that would allow us to use Outlook Schedual Sharing and Folder
sharing?

Thanks a bunch.
Craig

Outlook 98 has a feature called "net folders" that allow sharing of
calendars and other folder types via internet mail. No Exchange Server
needed.

That said, I have heard that net folders don't work well with mail servers
that don't conform strictly to Microsoft's MIME spec. This seems to be the
case, as I'm having trouble with net folders and sendmail. I plan on
switching to Qmail as soon as time permits. If this fixes things, I will
share the results.

craig,

i administer several NT servers and a newly set-up linux server.  

While i like linux's design, i am not impressed with it's lack of
maturity and support.  that being said, i don't envy you going to NT to
run exchange server, because while linux has no corporate support, NT
support comes down to $$$$$$$$$.  

NT is a money pit.  

$1K for the server version is only the tip of the iceberg.  

I'm sure Microsoft is not giving away copies of exchange server or
backoffice.
(without time bombs anyway).  

Plus there is the inevitable issue of creating all the user accounts,
etc you made for samba.  NT crashed?  Oh reinstall the OS and create
them all again.  There is no
/etc/passwd file.  As for security, check out l0pht heavy industries and
see their take
on NT password security.

While Samba sat on top of Unix,  NT file sharing can be a rat's nest.
If you use an NTFS partition, you can set permissions by file and
directory.  With FAT, your security plans are hosed.  

NT user administration is a JOKE.

One machine die? Need to move the NT hard disk to a backup machine?  It
had better be
an EXACT clone of the previous machine, right down to the irq
assignments,
chipset and BIOS version and date.  Otherwise you will be looking at
bluescreens
(the world recognized NT screensaver) while your users make your pager
go BEEEEP.

I strongly suggest that you find another mail, etc solution.  For
instance, there is supposed to be a FREE sql server that comes with some
linux distributions. There is your bulletproof data repository, maybe
somebody makes a front end that will talk to netscape or even (ugh)
outlook.

-jeff

You may be able to get something close in functionality by
bringing
a few technologies together.  Use something like the Cyrus Imap
server
with sendmail.  Cyrus IMAP supports shared mail folders with
ACLS.  Faxing can be setup using Samba and efax or mgetty ( It
sets up as a print queue to the fax modem).  Directory services
can be handled with OpenLDAP.  Unfortunately I have not seen
scheduling software that would support schedules.  According to
Microsoft, you can
do scheduling over an IMAP transport but you can't browse others
schedules interactively so it is not all that great.  I have run
across
some interesting calendaring products that run with Linux.  Some
are
commercial some are just shareware web cgi programs.

Calendar URLS
http://www.webmantech.com
http://www.crosswind.com
http://www.boutell.com/calendars/
http://www.webprog.com/appoint/index.html
http://www.cst.ca/ (no direct linux support)

Cyrus IMAP Server
http://andrew2.andrew.cmu.edu/cyrus/imapd/

OpenLDAP Directory Server
http://www.openldap.org/

Samba
http://www.samba.org

I won't try and fool you, this would take some work to pull
together
but it would could be done without a huge investment besides your
time
of course ;-)

Hope this helps...

On Tue, 06 Apr 1999 20:53:23 -0400, jeff kendall

FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD
FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD FUD

redhat corp give corp support
several small agiencies give corperate support
caldera gives corperate support
SUSE gives corp suppers
deabian gives corperate support
several ISP give connection support.
compaq gives limited support
IBM gives limited support
Corel is pitching in on the development of projects on linux.

ther are more how-to for linux on the net found more abundantly that
NT.

what more do you want man?
on site tech support for your software???

Quote:

>NT is a money pit.  

true

Quote:>$1K for the server version is only the tip of the iceberg.  

you got off cheap  our ten user license cost $1300+tax and the damn
thing is scratched and wont do a compleat install nor upgrade a win
95/98 machine so we run strictly linux and our NT server disk makes a
nice $1300 coster (kept in it's juwel case of corse) :-)

Quote:

>I'm sure Microsoft is not giving away copies of exchange server or
>backoffice.
>(without time bombs anyway).  

>Plus there is the inevitable issue of creating all the user accounts,
>etc you made for samba.  NT crashed?  Oh reinstall the OS and create
>them all again.  There is no
>/etc/passwd file.  As for security, check out l0pht heavy industries and
>see their take
>on NT password security.
>While Samba sat on top of Unix,  NT file sharing can be a rat's nest.
>If you use an NTFS partition, you can set permissions by file and
>directory.  With FAT, your security plans are hosed.  

>NT user administration is a JOKE.

agreed

Quote:>One machine die? Need to move the NT hard disk to a backup machine?  It
>had better be
>an EXACT clone of the previous machine, right down to the irq
>assignments,
>chipset and BIOS version and date.  Otherwise you will be looking at
>bluescreens
>(the world recognized NT screensaver) while your users make your pager
>go BEEEEP.

>I strongly suggest that you find another mail, etc solution.  For
>instance, there is supposed to be a FREE sql server that comes with some
>linux distributions. There is your bulletproof data repository, maybe
>somebody makes a front end that will talk to netscape or even (ugh)
>outlook.

its called postgress SQL
and I believe there is a netscape group calendaring server for linux

<-snip->

You struck one of the biggest weak points of the Linux community here.
There is no Groupware software on Linux (YET).
IBM is porting their LotusNotes wich is the best groupware software
their is in the whole world. Though you need to pay for it. It will be
released for the end of this year.

I scanned the net for any project groups that are working on a GPL
Groupware but there aren't any. (STrange enough) since their is a hughe
demand for what you want.

But perhaps some greatly designed Intranet applications will fix that
problem.

Linux, MySQL database server, Java, JavaScript and Perl will create some
nice workgroup applications ;-)

Raymond

You struck one of the biggest weak points of the Linux community here.
There is no Groupware software on Linux (YET).
IBM is porting their LotusNotes wich is the best groupware software
their is in the whole world. Though you need to pay for it. It will be
released for the end of this year.

I scanned the net for any project groups that are working on a GPL
Groupware but there aren't any. (STrange enough) since their is a hughe
demand for what you want.

But perhaps some greatly designed Intranet applications will fix that
problem.

Linux, MySQL database server, Java, JavaScript and Perl will create some
nice workgroup applications ;-)

Raymond