From: Rick Moen (rick at domain linuxmafia.com)
Date: Wed 01 Aug 2001 - 15:58:42 IST
begin Liam Bedford quotation:
> I think someone said that evolution supports the exchange protocol
> now?
Someone probably did, but that someone was wrong. ;->
> or bynari have a program you have to pay for.
Correct.
> Otherwise you're stuck with outlook for windows..
Well, unless you get creative. To quote the VA Linux knowledgebase
article:
Q: Is there a Linux client for Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail and
scheduling?
A: There are a variety of solutions to this problem. None are yet quite
as straight-forward as one might hope, because of obstacles posed by the
system's highly proprietary nature. 100% open source solutions are not
yet available (see remarks at end), but are coming along rapidly.
Some possible solutions:
1. Use Bynari's TradEXCH (http://www.bynari.net /), a
proprietary-software Unix client for MS-Exchange. It operates in either
of two modes. (a) Use it as a generic IMAP/SMTP client, as described in
the next option down, with functionality disadvantages, accordingly.
This mode requires that Exchange Server's IMAP Connector and SMTP
Connector be installed on the Microsoft Windows NT mail server. (b)
Install Bynari's Peermail Access Service (PMAS) on the Microsoft Windows
NT mail server. This mode permits TradEXCH to support the full range of
MS-Outlook/Exchange features (e-mail, calendars, meeting-scheduling),
and thus achieves integration comparable to that of the MS-Outlook
client on Win32.
2. Install Exchange Server's IMAP Connector and SMTP Connector. (This
also provides X.400 address support on the server end.) You can then
send and retrieve mail from any Linux e-mail client that supports IMAP,
including Netscape Mail. This solution does not give calendar access, or
access to some advanced e-mail forwarding and "groupware" features.
3. Install Exchange Server's POP Connector and SMTP Connector. You can
then send and retrieve mail from any Linux e-mail client that supports
POP3, including Netscape Mail. This solution does not give calendar
access, or access to some advanced e-mail forwarding and "groupware"
features.
4. Run MS-Windows 9x's Exchange Client on your Linux system under VMware
(http://www.vmware.com/) or Win4Lin (http://www.netraverse.com /). This
gives robust access to all Exchange e-mail and calendar features, at
some cost in system overhead to run VMware/Win4Lin, plus the cost of a
copy of MS Windows 9x and VMware or Win4Lin.
5. Run MS-Windows 9x's Exchange Client on your Linux system under WINE
(http://www.winehq.com /). At a minimum, MS-Exchange Client v. 5.0 is
reported to have tested OK under WINE. Later versions can at least be
tried, with no cost other than time and trouble.
6. Install Exchange Server's SMTP Connector, and then run an SMTP MTA
such as Sendmail on your Linux box. The Linux box and the Exchange
server can then communicate as SMTP peers. (You may find it desirable to
perform header rewriting on interchanged mail, to better integrate your
company's mail hierarchy.) This solution does not give calendar access,
or access to some advanced e-mail forwarding and "groupware" features.
7. Enable Exchange Server's Webmail component (in Exchange Server 5.5
and later), and use a Web browser on Linux. Again, you may lose access
to some advanced Exchange features. (We recently heard that this
approach does not work because Microsoft has ensured that Webmail works
only with Microsoft Internet Explorer on the client end.)
8. Install Infinite.com's WebMail Server (http://www.ihub.com / - not to
be confused with Microsoft's Exchange Server Webmail component) on a
Win32 machine that can connect to the Microsoft Exchange Server machine.
You must also install WebMail interface software on the Microsoft
Exchange Server machine, itself. This gives users with Web browsers on
any platform access to Exchange e-mail and calendar information. It's
unclear what access to other Exchange groupware features is possible.
9. Install MS-Windows Terminal Server + Citrix MetaFrame on your
MS-Windows NT server, and run Citrix's ICA client for Linux. This gives
robust access to all Exchange e-mail and calendar features, as you are
running Microsoft's Exchange Client on your NT server remotely.
10. Switch from MS-Exchange Server to Sun Microsystems's iPlanet
Messaging Server (successor to Sun Internet Messaging Server = SIMS),
which runs on Linux, or Netscape Fasttrack Server.
11. Install the Win32 version of VNC Server
(http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc /, free software under the GNU
General Public Licence from AT&T Cambridge) on a low-end MS Windows 9x
box running without a monitor, and use VNC Client for Linux to remotely
run MS-Exchange Client on the MS-Windows 9x machine. This gives robust
access to all Exchange e-mail and calendar features, as you are running
Microsoft's Exchange Client on Windows 9x remotely.
12. Install Exchange Server's SMTP Connector, and run Cyrus IMAP server
on a back-end Linux box. You can then send and retrieve mail from any
Linux e-mail client that supports IMAP, including Netscape Mail.
Open-source implementations on Linux of open standards for directory
support, Webmail, and group scheduling can be used, in place of MS
Exchange Server proprietary server functions, with many of the above
solution frameworks (e.g., #10): OpenLDAP (http://www.openldap.org/) is
commonly used for cross-platform directory services including address
books, IMP (Imap webMail Program, http://www.horde.org/imp/) is commonly
used for Web access to e-mail systems, and Kronolith
(http://www.horde.org/kronolith/) will eventially be usable for group
calendaring. Much of this work is being performed by the Horde Project
(http://www.horde.org/).
Constructing a Linux groupware client with functionality fully
comparable to that of MS-Outlook does not, contrary to many people's
impressions, merely require supporting Microsoft's well-documented MAPI
(Mail Application Programming Interface) protocol, but also either the
MS-Exchange Server RPC-based communications protocol or the earlier and
less fulll-featured Microsoft Mail (file-based) communications protocol.
Neither is documented outside Microsoft Corporation.
--
Cheers, "Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first
Rick Moen woman she meets, and then teams up with three complete strangers
rick at domain linuxmafia.com to kill again." -- Rick Polito's That TV Guy column,
describing the movie _The Wizard of Oz_
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