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Communications Software

Multiple Front-End Solutions for Email and Calendaring? 72

Posted by Cliff from the a-choice-of-interfaces dept.
USSJoin asks: "I am looking for a solution which I can install on my servers, that will allow me to run my email, calendars, to-do lists, and other groupware-ish functions. Specifically, I want a solution which allows equal access through the web and over an SSH session -- so that everything I do on one is accessible through the other. After extensive googling, I found Zimbra, which is nice and AJAX-ified, but doesn't include a to-do, and doesn't seem to have any way to deal with calendar access that is not made through the web front-end. I also found Citadel, but it seems like while it's a cute solution, it's quite cobbled-together and filled with hacks. This is especially true with its major Telnet interface, which seems dangerous to me. Has anyone on Slashdot had the same problem? What solutions have you found? Are Citadel or Zimbra really great and I just don't see their true possibilities? Are there other things I should be looking at, or different ways to approach this problem?"
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Multiple Front-End Solutions for Email and Calendaring? More

Multiple Front-End Solutions for Email and Calendaring?

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  • Horde! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Cybersonic ( 7113 ) <ralph@ralph.cx> on Saturday February 04, 2006 @10:26PM (#14644030) Homepage
    Cant go wrong with Horde! www.horde.org [horde.org]

    • Re:Horde! (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      /cheer

      Alliance sucks!
    • I was going to say the same thing. I mean, this does everything he wants. I use SSH access to do E-Mail, Calendar and todo lists.

      Great solution.

      RonB

    • The Horde web site seems disorganized. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @05:55AM (#14645133) Homepage
      The Horde web site seems disorganized. There seems to be no demo.

      I wish Open Source software authors were more careful about naming their software. Horde means crowd, with a negative connotation. Generally a horde is a group of poorly educated people, often savages.
    • And they are also working on a new app called DIMP which is basicly IMP (the email app of the suite) with AJAX. Hoping it will be the new groupware solution for my org within a year.
    • I use Horde because it comes with my hosting, and it's better than the others, neomail and squirrel mail. I still think it's pretty sub par. I think that although webmail is nice to get at your mail when you can't access it otherwise, it doesn't really compare with have a full fledged application. GMail is about as close as it gets, and that still has some short comings.

  • Consider an SSH tunnel (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Pyromage ( 19360 ) on Saturday February 04, 2006 @10:30PM (#14644039) Homepage
    I'm guessing that you need it available via SSH because it's behind a firewall somewhere. Have you considered using a good web-based tool, and then using SSH to tunnel in?

  • open-xchange (Score:4, Informative)

    by Blasphemy ( 78348 ) on Saturday February 04, 2006 @10:34PM (#14644051)
    http://www.openxchange.org/ [openxchange.org] - Open Xchange should make your list of "almost what you need". It has a great interface and excellent functionality. I don't know of any command line tools, but I don't think it would be too difficult to make some. I've never tried $ links http://localhost/ [localhost] for open-xchange access, but it should give you some decent functionality.

  • Scalix is the answer (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Battle of the Ajax Mail Packages
    By James Turner on Thu, 2006-01-26

    http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8722 [linuxjournal.com]

  • Sunbird and iCal hosting? (Score:3, Informative)

    by 8086 ( 705094 ) on Saturday February 04, 2006 @10:45PM (#14644082) Homepage
    I've been using Mozilla Sunbird and iCal hosting (icalx.com) for a while - it does to-do's and calendars pretty well, synchronizing back and forth. After a lot of searching and trying things out, this seemed to work the best for me. Also, there's a new Outlook plugin called Remote Calendars (http://sourceforge.net/projects/remotecalendars/ [sourceforge.net]) which does the same thing as Sunbird on Outlook.
    The only downside here is the lack of SSH, but I figured being able to read and update my calendar from any PC, and read my calendar from just about anything, and having my calendar in a standard format for my iPod is totally worth the lack of security.

  • Hula? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Trelane ( 16124 ) on Saturday February 04, 2006 @10:53PM (#14644106) Journal
    Is Hula [hula-project.org] maybe what you seek? If not, is it hackable to what you want it to be?
    • Funny, it seems that the idea behind Hula is really a complete ripoff of the idea behind Citadel, and the Citadel team has been pushing this concept since 1998 or so. Moving from corporate-focused groupware towards the modern idea of social software isn't something you can retrofit; it has to be the heart and soul of the design.

      Hula only exists because some immature but influential people at Ximian (who call themselves 'Novell' these days) have a serious case of Not Invented Here syndrome.

  • Zimbra has REST API's (Score:4, Insightful)

    by khenriks ( 583839 ) * on Saturday February 04, 2006 @11:09PM (#14644151) Homepage
    Zimbra has a host of REST API's [zimbra.com]. These would allow you to access all your Zimbra data via SSH when needed. You could also just set up an SSH tunnel to get to the web UI, unless by SSH you mean command line only.
  • Most of the Kontact member programs know how to use sftp. I have my contacts and calendar that way, though I don't use the calendar much. I first put contact pictures up for myself, then the whole std.vcf. The pictures are still on the sftp server, a mighty 90MHz Pentium. Kontact sucks it up as a tmp file which it puts back when you finish. This works very well with the version that now ships with Debian Etch. I keep a local copy on the laptop, in case I don't have network access, but that's rare and a

  • OpenGroupware.org (Score:4, Informative)

    by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Saturday February 04, 2006 @11:50PM (#14644248) Journal
    OpenGroupware [opengroupware.org]is a web-based groupware solution (with a closed-source, non-free outlook plugin).

    I have installed it on a couple of networks. The biggest probelm seems to be that there is no reliable calendar client that will work with it (other than aoutlook through the connector). Sunbird and other calendar clients crash or don't properly create appointments.

    Oh, and it does not provide an MTA, but there are plenty of good solutions for this.

  • Just install webdav on one of your webservers and point iCal (and/or Thunderbird) at the remote .ics file.

  • I also found Citadel, but it seems like while it's a cute solution, it's quite cobbled-together and filled with hacks. This is especially true with its major Telnet interface, which seems dangerous to me.

    Dangerous? No it ain't, unless you think all classic BBS'es are dangerous.. Webcit (the web interface) is very young compared to Citadel itself.

    (Citadel also isn't bloatware compared to Kolab and others, and I personally like not having to install 65535 seperate components and libraries just to get somethi

    • Re:Citadel (Score:3, Insightful)

      by mdfst13 ( 664665 )
      OP: "This is especially true with its major Telnet interface, which seems dangerous to me."

      P: "Dangerous? No it ain't,"

      Telnet is inherently dangerous because it requires sending passwords in clear text across the wire. If you want to argue that this telnet based interface is not dangerous, you need to explain why it doesn't require sending passwords in clear text. I.e. why authentication is not important or how it encrypts the authentication (which would have to run on top of the telnet connection).

      This c
  • I've been dreaming of a system like this. Especially if it supports sync to a Palm/Treo.

    And while we're at it, I'd like it to handle shared address book / address list functionality too.
    • NOT Palm sync, SyncML. SyncML would allow Palms, cell phones, and a host of other devices to sync.
    • FirstClass ( http://www.firstclass.com/ [firstclass.com] ), I mentioned this software in the main reply, but it also supports Palm Sync (syncs mail, calendar, addressbook, todo-list, and memos). You can share calendars, addresbooks, and conferences (more intelligent than folders).

      Shared addressbooks do not sync up, but you could place your addresbook on your secretaries/spouses FirstClass Desktop, and give them permissions to view, or add addresses.

      It is a little expensive (not compared to Exchange) but ther

  • FirstClass Groupware (Score:2, Informative)

    by darkone ( 7979 )
    FirstClass Groupware http://www.firstclass.com/ [firstclass.com] is not opensource, or free (except the 5 user version), but the server AND the clients will run on Windows, OSX, or Linux. There are also web and telnet interfaces available. This is a great GroupWare platform, with EASY client setup, and the three platforms look identical to the end user. This software also allows database (ODBC) integration and a VoiceMail piece.
    • I'll second that. I've been running FirstClass servers for more than 10 years now. Rock solid stable, mature, scales like there's no tomorrow, easy as sin to admin. Yeah, it's not FLOSS, but it's still damn good stuff. And it's made by a company who actually *listens* to its customers - I was chatting with one of their lead developers not less than 10 minutes ago. It's worth your time checking it out.

  • Realism (Score:5, Insightful)

    by aaronl ( 43811 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @04:02AM (#14644922) Homepage
    What you're looking for is the same as a whole lot of other people are.

    There are a few open source kits out there that are decent, but none of them are really done. Kolab and OpenGroupware look nice, but they have extremely limited client support. Kolab doesn't even have a fully functional web interface, instead relying on KDE's Kontact. They will both play well with Outlook on Windows through a for-money connector. Citadel has many of the features, but lacks *any* real client. I would love if the OSS kits worked, but people are much more interested in adding toys than finishing the project in good stages.

    Sometimes the right answer is to spend money. Exchange, Notes/Domino, and GroupWise will do very close to what you want. There are a number of similar kits, like Kerio's mail server, Scalix (commerical OpenGroupware), OpenExchange, and whatever OpenMail became called.

    As much as people think web apps are so wonderful, they really need to understand that they are not a panacea. Working in a web app for major use is quite a total pain; they just don't work as nicely as a native application. The interfaces are slow and there is no capability for offline operation. If the only fully-functional interface to something like this is a web app, then you have to largely discount it as an option. Users will hate you for forcing them to it.

    If Evolution ran on Windows, you would be fairly done with the search. The devs haven't gotten around to making this a reality, so you are stuck in an annoying place. If you are looking for only yourself, then any of these solutions is probably sufficient. If you are looking for a product normal users will have to deal with, then look to spend money on software.

    • Re:Realism (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Working in a web app for major use is quite a total pain; they just don't work as nicely as a native application. ... Users will hate you for forcing them to it.

      This is so true. Having first hand experience from a midsize org where the IT department thought it was clever to have web only interface for mail/calendar/etc. For security and ease of admin reasons. For all the users it is constant pain, for the reasons you list. The IT department doesn't see this or care, they have a solution that work very we

    • I concur. Mom and Dad have been using Outlook for years, and Windows Small Business Server licenses were relatively cheap, so I ended up going with Exchange. One of the nicer features of Exchange's calendar is that when you send invites to POP/IMAP clients (one of my users has a Mac), it will convert the invite into a link to Outlook Web Access. OWA in Exchange 2003 is much, much better than in previous versions. At the time, the OpenExchange stuff looked interesting but not quite production ready.

      • Also, OWA is much better in IE than it is in Firefox or Opera (it makes me very sad, but it's true). So if you are going to test it out to see how you like it -- try it in both IE and Firefox (or your browser of choice).

  • OBM (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    OBM [aliacom.fr] is a free web base groupware and crm solution with Outlook (non free) and Evolution (sunbird to come) connectors for calendar, contact and tasks.
    It doesn't provide email but can be set along with postfix, cyrus (or others) and IMP (or squirrel mail).
    It stores everything in db and is very scalable. Connectors access the server via webservices.

  • Call for convergence (Score:5, Insightful)

    by prestwich ( 123353 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @08:39AM (#14645386) Homepage
    Hi,
        I've been looking at the free calendaring disaster for a while now - and it is; there are
    perhaps 5-10 different packages, none of which interoperate; some very nice clients that
    only talk to really crap servers and some very nice servers with poor clients.

    Lets get some convergence here - please can we actually lock the
        Zimbra, Open Exchange, Sunbird, Open Groupware, Kolab
    (I must have missed some....)
    guys in a cave without food for a while until they actually agree to work together?
    For a concession I'll let caffeinated beverages in and a few computers with a copy
    of all known calendaring specs.

    (please toss in a couple of guys with MS programming experience so we can get Outlook
    to talk to the servers).

    • Re:Call for convergence (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      > I've been looking at the free calendaring disaster for a while now

      Yep, lots of crap out there. But blaming the free scene seems kind of unfair, since the "professionals" don't do any better.

      Yahoo Mail? Nice calender, but it doesn't import or export, and it only interoperates with Yahoo Mail, not with Outlook, Netscape, whatever.

      Outlook? Ok, the client is functional, the server works, but it doesn't interoperate either. If you look at the invitation without Outlook (that is in ASCII), you can't even par
    • I've been looking at the free calendaring disaster for a while now - and it is; there are perhaps 5-10 different packages, none of which interoperate; some very nice clients that only talk to really crap servers and some very nice servers with poor clients.

      Funny, that's exactly the problem that GroupDAV [groupdav.org] is supposed to solve. On the client side, Kontact and a few others support it; on the server side, Citadel and OpenGroupware.org (plus a few others) support it. It's just a matter of getting the other ma
  • These two caught my interest a while back, looks like it does what you want and more. eGroupware is a fork of PHP groupware, itseems eGroupware is most active.

  • microsoft exchange? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by way2trivial ( 601132 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @12:20PM (#14646017) Homepage Journal
    I read, and reread, the 'ask' header, and don't see where it must be open source..

    have you looked at exchange? or microsoft small buisness server?

  • basecamp (Score:3, Interesting)

    by quiddity ( 106640 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @04:45PM (#14646958)
    i think basecamp [basecamphq.com] is what you want
  • I'm no programmer, so I can't addressed the "cobbled-together" comment, but from an administrative point-of-view, I must disagree.

    I've never had an easier installation [citadel.org] of such a program. Likewise, updating is just as easy. The telnet interface takes its root from the 300-baud days, and isn't necessary for it to work - it's no more or less secure than anything that uses telnet (which is to say, not secure). However, there's ssh and its own text client (which is quite nice) to get around that.
    • Ditto what athos-mn is saying here.

      I am a programmer, and I've occasionally looked over the Citadel code. It's not a hodge-podge at all... it's reasonably well designed to handle a variety of protocols, to include its own proprietary protocol, using a kind of plug-in architecture. Frankly, although I don't generally like C code, I find this code is very well thought out.

      Furthermore, it consolidates your services to two executables (the Citadel server and the web interface server), rather than the several
  • It's actually not a "telnet" UI per se, but simply a text mode user interface. If you don't like it, then all you have to do is ... not use it! Keep in mind that Citadel works in a lot of different use cases. The text mode UI is really intended for BBS applications, so if you're not running a message board on your Citadel server then it's not really the client for you. You'd be better served running WebCit (the AJAX-enabled web interface) or even some of the fat clients such as Kontact that are well-int
  • Do you need web access, or are you willing to deal with SSH-only? Or might you consider using one tool for the web and another via SSH?

    If so, I'd recommend emacs. Gnus is an excellent mail client/newsreader, and emacs also offers calendaring functionality out of the box. Planner mode offers to-do lists, personal wikis and more. It's pretty sweet!

  • There's a finished product based on OpenACS called dotLRN -- an intranet-in-a-box for educational use. Email, message boards, calendars, and file sharing are all very well integrated. Try http://www.openacs.org/ [openacs.org]
  • Simple you can create calendars, share folders and contacts

    all work with full support for Outlook !
    plus sync your Apple address book and use Apple iCal (if you dont want to use entourage in exchange mode)

    kerio [kerio.co.uk]

    regards

    John Jones

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