I agree with your feelings. Why should we 'settle'? That's exactly the
mentality that will spell certain doom later on. Why should I 'settle' for
an OS that must be rebooted multiple times a day? I don't, and hence I
have large uptimes on even my workstations because of Linux.. why should a
production mail suite be any different? There are solutions out there,
they just need to be found. :)
I think the suggestion for Scalix was a good one. I contacted their sales
support yesterday, and they suggested the Community (free) model for my
small office (10 -15 users). I'm not sure the cost of the Enterprise
edition, but they are offering 50% off if you are switching from Exchange
to Scalix. Their slogan is: "exchange Exchange (for Scalix)"... quite
nice.. ;)
On Fri, December 16, 2005 05:17, Ronan Exim wrote:
> On 12/15/05, Jason Meers <Jason.Meers@???> wrote:
>>
>> If you need any further help with this or the paper just mail me direct.
>> I would be happy to take you on a visit of our sites if it helps (based
>> Manchester UK)
>>
>> I have been cursed with Exchange for years and got into Exim whilst
>
>
> Jason,
> In all fairness I have been quite surprised by the response up until
> now
> i have recieved to the list. It appears that a good number of technical
> users have almost accepted MS as a computing solution, albeit in a 'it
> could
> be worse' or 'its better than it was' sort of a way. I in true matrix
> fashion, cant see beyond a choice i dont understand...
>
> trying to find a way to firstly secure it, then secondly replace it.
>>
>> <rant>
>> The Exchange/Outlook virus factory is the worst lump of software I have
>> EVER used. The standard version of exchange (also in the small business
>> versions) are just poison pills that are pre-programed to explode at
>> 16Gb (Just enough low enough for everyone to hit it, and just high
>> enough that you can't afford to lose it).
>>
>> Without warning your mailserver will stop working and your only
>> indication of what went wrong is a single 4 digit error code entry in
>> event viewer AFTER IT HAS HAPPENED.
>>
>> You can fix it two ways:
>>
>> - get out the double-barreled cheque book and pay the ransom to see your
>> e-mails again by buying ENTERPRISE versions of your software (knock-on
>> effect to other licences too).
>>
>> - Compact your "databases" to save space (databases, good joke). You
>> will generally free some space by compacting all of the "empty" space
>> you have been backing up due the the poor "database" design, but the
>> majority of space re-claimed will come from all of the messages that
>> simply vanish or end up completely blank and unusable after the compress
>> (lose messages = recover space).
>>
>> - Edit the registry to use an even more risky one-time "death-row" 17Gb
>> hack.
>>
>>
>>
>> Seriously, what kind of person would choose to use:
>>
>> - A single microsoft access database to store all company emails in one
>> place (I wouldn't trust JET to store a shopping list never mind
>> corporate data and correspondence. Think about it, MS ACCESS to store
>> everything)
>>
>> - An SMTP feature built into the notorious IIS webserver instead of a
>> real MTA (IIS WILL be accessible from the net even if you don't run a
>> website because it provides the SMTP service not exchange)
>>
>> - A user directory based on the broken LDAP and Kerberos known as
>> Active Directory (don't even get me started on the endless list of
>> problems caused by multiple sites and servers in exchange environments)
>>
>> - Exchange Security (can I legally use those two words in the same
>> sentence?)
>>
>> Exchange users are forced to use these every day. Keeping Exchange
>> running is hard - backing it up reliably is impossible in my opinion
>> without taking the server down and making flat-file backups.
>>
>> When looking at TCO the cost of backups will probably cost more than
>> exchange itself. For every server we had, at least two more were
>> required for making RELIABLE backups and fixing corrupt mailboxes
>> offline.
>>
>> Do yourself a favor and look at Scalix if you MUST run something like
>> Exchange. I've migrated 4 exchange organizations already with plans for
>> another 4 next year (and some users didn't even notice and the box is
>> now good for 50x more users from 100 to 5000).
>>
>> see www.scalix.com
>> </rant>
>
>
> This is what im after... problems / benefits from running exchange in an
> entreprise.
> Duly noted i dont remember reading any benefits above... :)
> I definately would be interseted in learning more about your scenario at
> Manchester.
>
> Ronan
>
> Can anybody back me up here, or am I completely wrong about a fantastic
>> product.
>>
>> Before you flame me - ask yourself honestly how many of your Exim
>> problems relate to viruses, broken MTA's and badly written clients and
>> then ask yourself what percentage of those problems came along with
>> Windows\Exchange\Outlook\VBA\Office HTML\Office RTF
>>
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Jason
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> >>Ronan Exim wrote:
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>>I need objective pros / cons for exchange in an entrprise
>> >>>environment that I can along with my colleagues prepare a
>> >>>document expressing our "concerns" regarding.
>> >>
>>
>> >
>> > It's been mentioned on this list before, but those interested in
>> > integrating Exchange and Exim might find Jason Meer's paper on the
>> > subject of interest. This paper was presented at the first Exim
>> > conference in February 2005. See:
>> >
>> > http://www.uit.co.uk/exim-conference/full-papers/jason-meers.pdf
>>
>>
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