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
<
http://www.horde.org>
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
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