Believe it or not, IT departments shudder at the words “Let’s deploy Exchange.” Although Microsoft’s email server is virtually ubiquitous, that doesn’t mean it’s popular with those that have to manage it. So before your boss writes a hefty check for Exchange and sentences you to countless hours of hard labor, speak up and suggest one of the many open source substitutes that are just as robust as Exchange — and are free!
Believe it or not, IT departments shudder at the words “Let’s deploy Exchange.” Although Microsoft’s email server is virtually ubiquitous, that doesn’t mean it’s popular with those that have to manage it. So before your boss writes a hefty check for Exchange and sentences you to countless hours of hard labor, speak up and suggest one of the many open source substitutes that are just as robust as Exchange — and are free!
The Horde Project is one of those alternatives. It’s constantly refined, is widely deployed within small organizations and Fortune 500 companies alike, and has an active support network via mailing lists and support archives.
Joining the Horde
Created by Chuck Hagenbuch, Horde (http://www.horde.org) is a PHP-based application framework for building and deploying web applications. By itself, Horde doesn’t serve an obvious purpose for the end-user, as it only provides programming interfaces (APIs) for external applications. (Horde provides features such as authentication, browser matching, user preference management, MIME handling, inter-application communication, internationalization, and many more.) However, if you combine horde with Hagenbuch’s popular IMP web-based mail program, you get a system that easily rivals the features of Exchange. (IMP is just one of many Horde applications. Other Horde applications include Turba, a contact manager for SQL or LDAP sources; Kronolith, a calendar event manager for MCAL or SQL sources; NAG, a to-do list manager; and Jonah, a syndicated headlines retrieval system. See the Horde module page at http://www.horde.org/source/modules.php for a complete…
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