from time to time people ask about free source alternatives to Exchange server. I thought I would post up my impressions of the new versions of Horde/IMP and some of the other packages Note that this is now product used by 'Kolab' for web based access to Kolab. Newly released Horde version 3 - IMP version 4 - Turba 2 - Kronolith 2 - Nag 2 - Mnemo 2 (subversions omitted) - Ingo (CVS) - Wicked (CVS) In a word - AWESOME Horde (base - required - has it's own overview/layout/framework for everything else). Horde application is somewhat minimal but it provides something akin to Outlook Today (summary) where plug-in modules such as Weather.com - overviews of your task lists, mail folders (new mail), upcoming calendars and the always popular 'fortune' and can screen out inappropriate content in office environments. IMP - Web based mail program, designed for IMAP (can use but don't recommend POP3), well integrated with other modules, spell checks and very comfortable. Public/shared mail folders and quotas supported depending upon IMAP server capabilities. Turba - Ever sophisticated Contacts store in SQL or LDAP containers. I have implemented many types of LDAP containers and have given users their own Address Books and Shared Address Books. One of the more effective tools for user level access to create address book entries in LDAP - can even import from csv files. Kronolith - the calendar program with an impressive feature set. Calendars can be shared or private. User can have access to virtually unlimited number of calendars, can color code their categories, maintain an accessible free/busy URL, and reminders can be sent via email. Nag - Task list which also features sharing with others or private. Simple aspirations, simple to use. Mnemo - a mini note system. Not my application but some would likely find it useful and yes, they can be shared. Ingo - filtering system which creates sieve or procmail rules which users can actually use to filter/sort/vacation reply/blacklist etc. Very effective - no need to bother sysadmin. Wicked - A Wiki - I'm not enough of a Wiki expert to know but I would guess that this is minimally featured but effective and simple enough to be very useful. Took me about an hour to get into the swing and within 2 hours, I converted a complex set of web pages into linked, indexed wiki pages. Requirements...(My estimation) System running Apache and PHP 4.3.x (much use of pear modules from php) SQL of some type and mod-SQL-sametype IMAP server (I heavily recommend cyrus) MTA somewhere that accepts mail for the domain LDAP (not absolutely required but essential in my mind because if address books aren't available to users when they use their standard email program, they won't bother putting their entries in) I found the first time took me a while to get everything going - got much easier the second time. There is an incredible web based (php) - setup that makes the most difficult phases of setup rather easy. To get a really tuned system with the preferences that work for a specific company, there are some edits of preference files that have to be done by hand. Knowledge of an SQL db like postgresql or mysql a plus. Knowledge of openldap a real plus. Knowledge of suitable IMAP server (cyrus - courier) very important...uw- imap doesn't cut it, don't personally know about other IMAP servers. I have now shown this to 3 of my customers and they have all said that they want it. I have installed it at my house (my demo) and at one of my customers (executive director almost fell out of his chair since he had no idea that was what I was doing on his server). It's a show stopper - I could probably demo it at a meeting sometime. I would estimate that my time to set up for a client... apache - php 1.0 hours mysql 1.0 hours cyrus 1.0 hours openldap 3.0 hours (assuming few or no users) horde/imp/kronolith nag/mnemo/wicked/ ingo 3.0 hours misc. loose ends 1.0 hours ---- 10.0 hours figuring few or no users, not having to migrate stuff like mail from uw- imap or import/migrate users from /etc/passwd into openldap dsa as this would escalate the time factor significantly. generally, this type of setup would have samba and other stuff integrated to give SSO (single sign on) or at least, unified passwords for mail/windows networking/etc. and integration with other services such as samba, Windows AD would escalate the time factor significantly. Thought some would find it interesting - I truly agree when the developers called this new version 'bleeding edge' - I am still getting amazed at some of the things I am doing with this setup. Craig --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss