[ubuntu-uk] IBM & Ubuntu - but what about Lotus?

Rob Beard rob at esdelle.co.uk
Wed Oct 21 09:56:26 BST 2009


Paul Roach wrote:
> It's an interesting development and perhaps brings Ubuntu one step 
> closer to providing support for an application that can genuinely 
> compete with MS Exchange (the sole reason why we still have an Active 
> Directory environment here - as everything else for Windows clients 
> can be delivered via Samba+LDAP).  IMHO it's the one thing that's 
> lacking for Ubuntu and Linux in general.  A cost effective, functional 
> and not exclusively web based groupware solution that functions for 
> both Windows and Linux clients would then provide a complete migration 
> path for corporates to an Open-Source environment.  Unfortunately 
> Exchange is, at the moment Microsoft's killer app and is too often 
> dismissed as a simple mail server.  The integration it provides with 
> the other aspects and features (shared tasks, calendars, public 
> folders, journaling, etc) mean that there's nothing out there at 
> present that can touch it.
>
> Thanks for bringing this to attention Mac, and for the detailed 
> response Alan.
Well there is Zimbra.  I tried the Open Source edition and found it to 
work quite well.  After a bit of fiddling I worked out how to import 
Exchange users to Zimbra (there is a Windows tool available) and it has 
a nice web interface, mail, calenders etc.  It can also be expanded with 
the use of Zimlets (I liked the fact I could link it in with Google 
Maps).  It also has Windows and Linux clients, and I believe a Mac 
client too (Zimbra Desktop).

On the down side though the Open Source edition doesn't have plugins for 
Outlook (I believe that only in the paid for version) and it isn't under 
the GPL, I gather it's some sort of Yahoo licence which is more 
restrictive.  Not to mention the fact it's future appears to be somewhat 
hanging on the balance (Yahoo may or may not sell it according to 
articles I've read on the net).

Rob




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