[Techtalk] Scalix

[Travis Casey]

On Tuesday 07 September 2004 05:59, Karen Liesenfeld wrote:

> Does anyone have some experience with Scalix - www.scalix.com?
>
> I have a client who runs MS Exchange and wants to update it. Someone
> came and asked whether they would try Linux and Scalix. And to my
> surprise they said: why not. And then they turned to me and asked me if
> they really should...
>
> I think they should switch to a real OS for their mail sever, but I am
> not at all sure about Scalix.
>
> Any input would be helpful.

I don't have any real experience with it, but we're currently trying it 
ourselves.  The Scalix folks have a free trial download, and they're quite 
willing to help with setting up the trial and trying it out.

From very limited tests, it does work, which is about all I can say.  We 
could send mail, exchange calendar stuff, etc.  We've had a few issues with 
appointments moving back and forth between Exchange and Scalix, so I'm not 
sure how great it would be to run a mixed environment.  

It doesn't use Exchange's native protocol -- you need an additional 
component thingie (forget the "official Microsoft term") to make Outlook 
work with it.  That component is only available for Windows Me and 2000 and 
newer -- so if you've still got anyone using Windows 98 or NT4 or below in 
your organization, they won't be able to use it.

It supports IMAP4 out of the box, so you can also use any email client that 
"speaks" that.

There's a web interface for administration, but it's limited to working with 
mail accounts and groups -- you can't stop or start the server with it, or 
anything like that.  That sort of thing has to be done using the command 
line.  Creating and modifying users and groups can also be done from the 
command line.

And speaking of web stuff, it also has a webmail component, which is 
superficially like Exchange's, but I like it better, myself.  It's a java 
interface, so unlike MS's ActiveX one, it actually looks the same on 
Netscape, Konqueror, etc.

... and that's about all I can say.

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_     Travis S. Casey  <efindel at earthlink.net>
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