[brluglist] converting from M$ Exchange to UNIX mail server

[Dustin Puryear]

At 07:29 PM 3/15/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>I am aware that Exchange has all sorts of connectors; but, I was not aware 
>that it had an IMAP connector.

Exchange offers IMAP access for mail retrieval--not an IMAP connector. 
Exchange also offers other types of services, such as POP2, POP3, NNTP, and 
LDAP.

>Remembering  your main goal is to convert over as much of the pertinant 
>folder structure and messages as possible despite differences how a folder 
>is used, you would want to get at the folder data by the most flexible 
>means possible.

I'm going with Tim's suggestion of using POP and fetchmail or the 
suggestion to use IMAP. With IMAP it is very possible you could maintain 
each user's folder layout without configuring procmail per user. John, when 
you do this make sure you document each step. This would be an excellent HOWTO.

>Remember that IMAP will probably not cover calendar, journal, or other non 
>message email objects too well.

This remark reminds me of a conversation I recently had. The main problem 
that we have when we push UNIX and Linux as a messaging platform is that 
our solutions either offer mail, directory services, or both, but normally 
nothing else. Users want ease of access to related application--they want 
to be able to share calendars; drop customer messages into shared, archived 
folders; look up the phone number help desk; and read the latest spam. You 
can't do this with UNIX tools currently. Now, you can say that integrating 
all of these services into a single client application isn't necessarily a 
good thing (and I would disagree), but the real point here isn't whether 
you like the idea or not, but that users just want it.

So until we have an application that behaves like Exchange-Outlook, we can 
only offer parts of the total package. Certainly, we already have 
applications that will provide Exchange-like services. What we need is a 
client piece to tie it all together. I don't see anything like this being 
developed. Even the touted Evolution (which I loved when I was using Linux 
as my desktop) doesn't even plan on supporting this functionality, unless 
they have recently revamped their design goals.

>You'd be also giving up any server side virus/worm protection (unless 
>there are O.S. tools to do this out there that I'm not aware of- ***SCREAM 
>AT ME PEOPLE IF YOU KNOW OF SOMETHING LIKE THIS***)

Are you asking if there are anti-virus tools for Linux mail servers? If so, 
yes, there are. Try McAfee's Linux product or Sophos. I am pretty sure 
there are others out there.

Regards, Dustin


---
Dustin Puryear <dpuryear at usa.net>
Information Systems Contractor
http://members.telocity.com/~dpuryear
PGP Key available at http://www.us.pgp.net
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