[CentOS] Which is better? Microsoft Exchange 2016 or Linux-based SMTP Servers?

Valeri Galtsev galtsev at kicp.uchicago.edu
Thu Jul 19 22:56:41 UTC 2018



On 07/19/18 17:51, Alice Wonder wrote:
> On 07/19/2018 07:14 AM, Johnny Hughes wrote:
>> On 07/18/2018 04:05 PM, Valeri Galtsev wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On 07/18/18 14:36, Johnny Hughes wrote:
>>>> On 07/18/2018 01:58 PM, Valeri Galtsev wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> <snip>
>>>>
>>>>>> But are you guys really telling you think the calendaring / 
>>>>>> scheduling
>>>>>> for individual users and the main corporate account, etc. .. are
>>>>>> working
>>>>>> well enough with any Linux solution.
>>>>>
>>>>> I must confess, my servers are FreeBSD, but I'm quite sure the same is
>>>>> doable easily on Linux.
>>>>>
>>>>> We use for calendars Owncloud (may migrate to nextcloud in some future
>>>>> to come). That authenticates against LDAP.
>>>>
>>>> And does that calendar solution allow for things like:
>>>>
>>>> 1)  Allowing all users in the organization to see users calendars and
>>>> see when they are free to schedule a meeting with them.
>>>
>>> Yes at least about a part of it: calendars can be shared with some
>>> people or with everybody (which we didn't do, so I may be not 100%
>>> presenting "experimental fact" here). Not certain about "free/not free"
>>> mapped on calendars though.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> 2) Allow for designated people to schedule meetings for others (ie, 
>>>> your
>>>> secretary/office assistant can schedule meetings for people, etc.)
>>>
>>> Yes, you can share calendar with anybody, and can set any set of choices
>>>
>>> can read
>>> can write
>>> can "re-share" your calendar
>>>
>>> You can share stuff to external people, and set individual
>>> authentication for them independent of our system (in general, it is not
>>> just calendars, but we use it for mostly synchronizing between all of
>>> your devices, and also sharing: files, calendars, address book; it can
>>> also be bookmarks, and there are variety of plugins expanding what else
>>> can be accessed/synchronized via web/dav)
>>>
>>>>
>>>> 3) Allow a calendar to schedule shared items .. like meeting rooms,
>>>> shared vehicles, etc.  So that people can check those out for specifc
>>>> time windows, etc.
>>>
>>> No, but for resource booking (if I read the question correctly) we use
>>> mrbs (https://mrbs.sourceforge.io/). I know, that is not "integrated"
>>> for you to have everything in one place. I never had time to look for
>>> extention/plugin to suck from mrbs booked slot into one's calendar.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Those are just a couple of minor things a lot of solutions can't do
>>>>
>>>> And do they work with imap, etc.
>>>
>>> No, owncloud/nextcloud don't work with IMAP as far as I know. Mail
>>> server is separate issue. Zimbra in that respect IS "integrated
>>> collaborative environment". And so is Kolab. They both are lacking
>>> per-user spam preferences. One more thing that added some minus for each
>>> of them in my estimate what to choose is: behind each of them there is
>>> commercial company. And that in my looooong experience significantly
>>> increases the chance one day openly available incarnation of each may
>>> become no longer available for us, and I will have to find replacement
>>> in a rush and find the way to migrate to it, and the more sophisticated
>>> the thing is, the trickier the migration will be.
>>>
>>> My answers are mostly about owncloud which we use for quite some time.
>>> Nextcloud is fork of owncloud, and to my regret nextcloud doesn't work
>>> with postgresql, only with mysql/MariaDB, whereas owncloud works with
>>> postgresql as well as with mysql/MariaDB (still we have some reasons to
>>> migrate to nextcloud at some point).
>>>
>>> I hope, someone with more knowledge will chime in.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Don't get me wrong.  I've run qmail, postfix, and zimbra mail servers
>> with IMAP, along with webmail front ends (roundcude, squirrel mail,
>> etc), for windows, mac and linux clients for several companies (all on
>> CentOS of course :D) .. I just don't think that calendaring that I have
>> seen is as user friendly as google calendar (for example).  But I'm all
>> for people running mail servers on CentOS (or any other Linux) if they
>> want !
> 
> I can't use google calendar because it used tracking cookies which I block.
> 
> So it doesn't work for me.
> 
> Would actually love to see a distributed / federated calendaring 
> platform developed, that I suspect would do well.

Owncloud and nextcloud support federation.

Valeri

> 
> What I mean is Company A can choose to federate with Company B when 
> needed to allow cross-scheduling when needed while both still maintain 
> complete ownership of their calendar data.
> 
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-- 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



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