Take a look at Zimbra for an exchange / outlook replacement.

http://www.zimbra.com/

Also, I haven't used Mint, but Ubuntu is a pretty darn good distro as well.

-Pete

On Nov 1, 2010, at 6:33 PM, Dr Skip wrote:

> Not sure if this is "software engineering" or OT, so maybe if the subj li=
ne is
> too offensive, one of the bosses will adjust it... ;) Feel free to contac=
t me
> off list if you can help, or on list if you so desire.
>=20
> I've been given a challenge to show how we can move from a Micro$oft
> email/outlook/calendar setup to a Linux/open one. Everyone is going gaga =
over
> Linux Mint, which seems to be the best put together distro I've seen for =
end
> users in a couple of decades. ;) So, hurdle 1 - a good, easy to manage
> replacement for windows - is solved. Even wine runs what is needed from w=
indows
> out of the box!
>=20
> Gnome seems to run the best on it, so Evolution seems to be the PIM of ch=
oice.
> Everyone likes the look and feel so far. It seems better than when I test=
ed it
> a few years ago too. So far so good. Email in it is even easier to use th=
an
> Thunderbird. Open office, Planner, etc, will do nicely too.
>=20
> The last piece is getting tough - sharing. I've looked at davical and a f=
ew
> others, but I know from past experience with Apache that it's a lot of ti=
me to
> set up an Apache server up with SQL, et al, and get it right and SECURE. =
The
> instructions are not simple, and there are a lot of tweaks needed it seem=
s. I'm
> not a full time admin... Not even my job... I know there are various all-=
in-one
> pre-configured apache, etc, servers like LAMP. Is there anything that is =
ready
> to go out of the box that includes an iCal or Evolution-compatible compon=
ent or
> will allow calendar/task sharing with Evolution?
>=20
> Any pre-made pkgs do this? Anyone have something like this going and can
> package it up? I remember doing stuff like this years ago and constantly
> getting into situations where some lib install would break something else=
 and
> eventually all would have to be rebuilt. I can't do that now, both for ti=
me and
> I'm sure there's pro-windows folks around just waiting to pounce on me if=
 that
> happens... :(
>=20
> So, advice and help needed. A nice complete pkg with graphical config wou=
ld be
> nice. HA! Actually, not sure why someone hasn't done that, but if they ha=
ve,
> google hasn't shared it's name or address.
>=20
> BTW, clouds services are out for security/privacy reasons. Access will be=
 on a
> LAN, and anything remote can be through ssh. That doesn't mean I can get =
sloppy
> with web server security settings, it's just an extra layer of protection=
.... ;)
>=20
> Thanks in advance.
>=20
> Skip
> --=20
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