We've currently got our email through a POP3 provider who has dropped the ball one too many times. Now we're looking for an in house email solution.

I've got some experience with Exchange, so that's still an option, but I'd like to get some opinions on Linux based technologies that will run on RHEL 4.

The solution should provide the following:

Support outlook as a client, support calendaring, email forwarding, auto response (out of office) and be easy to administer.

Ideally, I'd like suggestions on antispam, antivirus, and webmail solutions as well. These should be programs that can reside on a separate machine from the mail server.

I've checked Scalix, Qmail, and Postfix (with Dovecot, Spamassasin, ClamAV, and Squirrelmail). Can I get some opinions on these?

Thanks in advance...

if you want to say "the linux version of exchange is XXXXX" then that's probably zimbra.

Well, it appears that Zimbra's been bought by Yahoo, and only the "Network Professional" version supports outlook as a client, so that's a bust. But thanks for the input...

Can I get an opinion on Scalix?

That support is for Calendaring and shared address lists, not simple send/receive email - I'm sure you already knew that but I wanted to re-affirm just in case.

Zimbras purchase price is still far less expensive than licensing for Microsoft exchange..

even better yet have you considered an apple OSX server for your mail ?
One flat price, no additional per user licensing.
http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/mail.html
http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/ical.html



I currently run Postfix, Courier-imap, spamassassin, amavisd, clamAV on my in house mail server, it just runs and runs.

I don't support calendaring or other features on the mail server it's strictly e-mail. Clients use either Outlook or Thunderbird.
I have no complaints this thing never goes down, more than I can say for my counterparts that all run Exchange.. nothing like a corrupt exchange mail-store to ruin your weekend..

Thanks Far for the reply. I'm confused though. Scalix claims their product is also an email solution.

http://www.scalix.com/community/comm...tion/index.php

Wait... I see your reply wasn't in regard to scalix. Sorry for the confusion.

So your meaning was that Zimbra's Network Professional version was only for calendaring? I guess I'm still a little confused.

Zimbra and Scalix both do what Exchange does. in order to get the Outlook connector piece that allows you to use the scheduling features in Outlook you need to use the PAID version of these products, as that functionality is not available in the free versions.

If you don't care about the shared calendars and such and just plan to use the server for POP3 and IMAP connections the free versions of Zimbra or Scalix will fill your needs just fine. The ajax web client in Zimbra is absolutely amazing (I suggest you check out the demo on the Zimbra website if you have not already done so.. after that you may no longer have a need for outlook) If you do decide to go with the Paid versions of Zimbra or Scalix I think you will find they cost far less than the CAL's necessary to implement an exchange solution.



50 User Zimbra = $1500.00/yr
Or Open Source version FREE


Exchange 2007 5 User = $1300.00
45 additional Exchange 2007 Cals would be $3726.00
Server 2003 64 Bit = $800.00
45 user CALS for 2003 Server = 1500.00
total $7,326.00


Server Hardware for Zimbra or Exchange Solution starting at $4250.00

MS Exchange 2007 REQUIRES a 64 BIT OS so Exchange can access more than 4 GB of RAM..so apparently putting more than 4GB of RAM in the mail server would be appropriate I guesses for exchange 2007.... so actually your hardware cost will be higher for Exchange than what I have listed..

Regardless of the costs for ANY of the other solutions (including PAID versions of Zimbra or Scalix) they will come out far less than the cost of the Exchange solution.



the Apple Server solution gets you the Hardware and Server software installed and pre-configured (for the most part) with support options available, for what you would pay for just the hardware for any of the other solutions (including the open source solutions).. Wish I had thought of that when I replaced my mail server earlier this year

Apple OSX Server Unlimited users $5,594.00
given the opportunity to do all this over again I wish I had chosen the Apple solution..