Mail Server / Exchange Server

[J. L.]

Am 12.04.2011 05:52 schrieb Patton Echols:
> Thanks for the reply, reformatted for future users, question below:
> 
> On 04/11/2011 05:49 PM, Christian Costa wrote:
>>
>> On 12/04/2011 12:10, Patton Echols wrote:
>>> Greetings all:
>>>
>>> My 'buntu usage has been limited to my desktop and intranet / backup
>>> servers.  My questions concerns the real time difficulty of
>>> maintaining a mail server for a small organization.
>>>
>>> First, once up and running, is the routine maintenance of a mail
>>> server particularly difficult or time consuming?
>>>
>>> Second, <noob mode=elevated> The organization's current service
>>> limits the number of emails per day.  The service says "everyone does
>>> it that way"  If hosting ones own service, isn't it just a function
>>> of bandwidth?
>>>
>>> Third, If my mail server is a virtual server in a data center
>>> somewhere, and serve mail out of it, does my server deliver mail
>>> through some other provider's server?  Or direct to recipients?  If
>>> the answer is "either" how does one decide?
>>>
>>> Finally, the organization's mail is currently hosted on a  exchange
>>> server, but I am told that it is really only being used for mail. 
>>> Does anyone know what else an exchange server can do that is useful?
>>> and or is there a particularly "fine manual" that I should read?
>>> </noob>
>>>
>>> Thanks for any thoughts.
>>>
>>> --PE
>>>
>>>
>> I'm currently using iRedmail. It's easy to set up and opensource.
>> http://www.iredmail.org. It's sort of plug and play and you will get
>> lots of functionality out of the box.
>>
> Do you know enough about exchange server to know how iredmail compares?

I do not know iredmail but if it comes to MS Exchange you've come to one
of the main perhaps even the "sole" singular reason(s) for MS's
predominance in the so-called business world.

Exchange is a complete groupware server product and, to the best of my
knowledge, only very few, if really any at all, of opensource software
products do match _all_ of Exchange's features. E-Mail is just one of a lot.

Google or even wikipedia should be quite helpfu as entry points to this
topic! ;-)

Besides Zimbra You should also have a close look at Scalix Groupware and
similar products.

Good luck!