[surferboy]

I found a robust open-source virtual office system called egroupware. It has very nice features. Install can be a little tricky- but not for anyone with any php experience.

I am trying to wiggle my way around this system, and the friendly support and help is much better here than anywhere else, so I thought I'd invite anyone out there to look at this system, and consider installing it on their server so we can start a support thread here.

The egroupware support forum is a little weak.

Thanks.

[bluedog]

I've installed egroupware before, but never used it for a production site. Let me take another look at the current version and see what we've got.

I'm actually interested in something like this for an intranet where I work. One other primary function I'd like is a collaborative calendaring system that can sync in and out of Outlook on a PC AND with iCal on a mac.

[surferboy]

I think EGW will do that for you. There are new versions out- but the server is currently down. In my opinion documentation is OK- not fantastic. I've been able to implement most of the things I'd like to see on this system- I'm still trying to figure out the mail system.

Let me know what you think.

[bluedog]

Still haven't gotten this configured. I would love if anyone else has this installed to chirp up and remark on its use/usability. When I get it installed, I'll post and bump.

[besson3c]

I've spent a good deal of time with eGroupware. I was attracted to the fact that it can be used with KDE Kontact. Its web interface is extremely quirky, but I was intending to use it simply as a data store for data pushed to it from an email client.

Changed directions though, and am still hoping that somebody will write a plug for OS X Mail that will work with any of the existing Groupware solutions.

It looks like Hula and Zimbra are the biggest and heaviest players in the game right now. Zimbra has a great web interface, and Hula also has the weight of Novell and a great web interface too.

I also tried installing OpenXChange, and have played with OpenGroupware a lot too. It is written in WebObjects, and can be used with iCal.

[bluedog]

OMG! Zimbra is amazing?!?! From the demo it looks like an email client to better google's gmail.

And the calendar options of Hula look nice too. I am constantly astonished by the abilities of open source software to provide first-rate solutions.

I've got egroupware installed. What specific questions were you interested in? I definitely will be a novice with this one, but we may work out the issues in this thread.

Thanks for the links to other software. I'll definitely test these out for feasibility in my work setting.

[surferboy]

I've got most of EGW up and running. It's very functional. My biggest bugaboo right now is the email client. I can get a single IMAP email account to work- that of the administrator- but I when I create a new user; create a new email profile (i.e. to reflect the IMAP settings for .mac or AOL), and try to allow the new user to access email through his/her own account, I can't get it to work- issues with IMAP authentication.

Have you played with felamimail yet? If so, have you been able to access email from accounts that are not specifically on the server on which EGW is installed?

So, far, this is a robust suite of applications with some small quirks. It looks like Zimbra cost money- or is that just to have it hosted?

[surferboy]

Zimbra has me intrigued, but I am a little intimited by it: Bluehost.com is my host. It looks like you need red hat or fedora as an OS, my server runs unix: excuse my ignorance can i install this on a generic version of unix?

[bluedog]

I looks like you would need control of your own server for Zimbra to install. Unix has many similarities with Linux in the tools available and many can be compatible in the scripting side of things, but when dealing with binary applications you may not be able to rely on them.

Zimbra has a downloadable open source version. I haven't tried it yet. I'll see if I can get the IMAP to talk on the local server I have and my remote server at work.

I'll let you know the results. Do you need authentication for the remote server (you probably should)? If so, try using the setup info to put in the authentication for user you wish to set up that has the IMAP account.

--
Grant

[besson3c]

Linux binaries generally do not work in FreeBSD/Darwin/OS X and other Unixes. In fact, I don't know of any that do. The exception is the Linux compatibility layer in FreeBSD, but it doesn't work flawlessly and without effort.

However, like all OSS, you can download the source code, apply a few patches for your system, and compile it. Let me know what operating system you intend to run it on, and I'll be happy to help as I can.

Many do require root/sudo access to install them, since most have dependencies and other components that are a required part of the install.