Been spending alot of time on the internet looking for the best possible linux replacement for Microsoft Exchanger server. After a few days of searching, I'm still not sure which one I should try.

The host distro itself is not as big of a deal for my ogranization. What is the biggest concern is, if any, what linux replacement would be easier to restore in the event of a disaster?

Hoping some people might have some ideas on this issues.

Well, that's a double question.

If you want to replace Exchange's email functionality only, you could go with Postfix/Sendmail, along with Dovecot for security. That'll give you IMAP and POP functionality. If you also want to replace the groupware piece (calendars, busy-search, etc.), check out the Evolution server (from Novell/SuSE now - http://www.novell.com/products/deskt...evolution.html), which does it all.

As far as the host distro, you're right, it isn't that big of a deal. Most all of them can support bare-metal recovery tools, like mondoarchive, mkcdrec, or systemimager. They let you generate a set of bootable ISO images, suitable for booting over network/DVD, and can recover a system in under an hour. But you'd never run your enterprise email off something without redundant disks and backup servers, right??

That being said, if you were going to go with Evolution, I'd suggest SuSE Enterprise server, and pay for support for the whole ball of wax from Novell. You'll have someone to call if things go south, who not only support the OS, but the mail service as well.

Just my $0.02.