SuSE's OpenExchange and Windows Integration?

enrico_suave asks: "I work for a small-ish Non Profit Organization (less than 20 users) who would like to utilize 'groupware' (calendaring/contacts/etc) sharing software but aren't in a position to spend large amounts of cash on Microsoft Exchange Server. We currently use Outlook 2000's kludgey Net Folders which is often more trouble than it's worth. I've been looking at SuSE Linux's OpenExchange Server as a low cost groupware alternative, and wanted to know if anybody has used this package in a similar setting. A previous Slashdot article was more of an announcement, than a hands on review, and most of the reviews I've seen don't seem very objective or don't delve deep enough into details/practical usage. Has anyone used SuSE's OpenExchange in a primarily Windows shop with Outlook as the desktop mail/groupware client? How is the Outlook integration?"

We've used it

[cotcomsol]

We've had OpenExchange for a couple months, and have been pretty happy with it. The web interface works great. There are a few things that need work, and every once in a while we run into something that hasn't been translated from German, but for the most part it works.

The outlook integration is handled via a system tray program that runs and sync's your outlook on a schedule (every 30 minutes I think by default), so it's not really "live" integration with outlook, but it seems to work ok. SuSE just released a new version of the sync program today.

The palm sync works ok too. It's implemented in Java/soap. Has a few bugs, mainly in all-day events (palm lists it as an all day event, OE shows it as an event that starts at 00:00:00. Every time I sync it pops up a change dialog for any all day events I have, and I have to click through each of them each time).

Backup is kinda kludgy... there is no built in way to back up all the groupware functionality, other than doing a full system backup, or backing up the PostgreSQL databases, the LDAP directory, etc separately.

Overall, it works well for what it does, but it could be cleaned up a bit. I'd really like to see an updated palm conduit.

Microsoft NFP programs

[dfranks]

You might want to check into not-for-profit pricing for Microsoft. It's a lot cheaper than OpenExchange and while exchange administration can be a pain, once you know the ropes it's not so bad.

I provide IT services for two charities (30-40 users) and Exchange or SBS with Exchange works out pretty well.

Initial impression

[Anonymous Coward]

We're only just starting to roll it out, but it has failed to impress me so far.

It makes a complete desktop install (up to and including asking if you want to install 3D drivers).
I have also ran into some limitations in their installer WRT LVM and (software) RAID, and SW RAID and boot managers - which are really limitations in their installer and not in the actual technologies.

I have run into a few real bugs already in their web frontend, concerning no less than configuration of the thing.
I've reported two bugs two days ago in the morning; they are still unanswered as of now (~10AM here so that would be two full days by now[1]).

I've also encountered at least one "bug" which was a case of inaccurate error reporting, and took a while to figure out what was really going on.

I still have to look into that part yet, but from a superficial glance it will also take quite some work to integrate it into our existing network infrastructure (existing user accounts in LDAP, anyone? And migrating our mail configuration from our existing server.)

The support is not bad, but it's not fast (there are support upgrade programs for that) and the fact that I needed it a few times already is concerning (take my word on that).

When one deviates even the smallest amount from the SuSE set out configuration/environment, small things break everywhere. Which makes it a non-solution for anything beyond small upstart companies.

In the april issue of Linux Magazine [linux-magazine.com] there was a cover story about five candidate Exchange replacements, including OpenExchange, with an initial comparison and then individual articles about each of those five (of which, incidentally, the OpenExchange one is available online).
In their comparison, OpenExchange came out as the least fit Exhange replacement candidate. IIRC, there were two very good ones (ISTR easygate was one of them, can't remember the other and I don't have the mag at hand anymore), two still very good but not as good as the other, and then OE.

I'd suggest to order an evaluation version first, and see how it works out.

[1] As a matter of fact, replies to both just rolled in while I was typing this comment. So that would make up to 2 date reply time (another issue I reported about was more like one day)

I work for a Non-Profit

[jcayer]

I work for a non-profit and recently we stumbled onto http://www.techsoup.com. Assuming you qualify, standard Exchange Server is $39 and Exchange CALS are a mere $2.50.

My manager is still open to something like Sendmail, but since we're a Microsoft shop, and it's cheap, it may be a hard battle when the time comes.