HP's OpenMail to support Linux 86
HP has announced that it will support Linux with its OpenMail which provides a UNIX based messaging/scheduling package (similar to MS Outlook). According to HP it will also provide Outlook connectivity, which gives it a unique edge. There is a free beta available, and the release is set for September.
Server or client software (Score:1)
is mail server software, so it is more like exchange and sendmail than outlook. I think.
Re:Server or client software (Score:2)
In addition to robust Internet e-mail-standards support, the Linux edition of OpenMail will include rich support for Microsoft(R) Outlook (including full wide-area calendar/schedule access) and OpenMail 6.0's new Web client.
That paragraph in particular seems to indicate this.cetan
Re:Server or client software (Score:1)
Are they supporting Linux or Red Hat? (Score:1)
Once you have agreed to the conditions of the program you will then be able to download the OpenMail server installation image for RedHat Linux 6.0, the OpenMail MAPI Service Provider for the Microsoft Outlook client, and the OpenMail Motif Client for Linux (OMGUI).
By releasing binaries built against and ackaged for RH6 they seem to be implying that they aren't really supporting Linux as they are Red Hat.
Interesting timing.. (Score:1)
- coug
Does it work with the Palm? (Score:1)
I'm looking to break my users FROM Outlook... (Score:1)
Then I remembered the truth: Outlooks sucks.
It's buggy, full of badly written and non-standards based code. 90% of the trouble with email I get calls from users on is Outlook's fault.
I want standards based stuff, NOT to throw HP's linux based crap on top of Microsoft's Win95 based crap.
I'll wait for the open source community to write a 'better than outlook' program, using standard, like POP3, IMAP, vcal, etc... the only reason it hasn't happened is that people keep trying to make Outlook work.
Re:Are they supporting Linux or Red Hat? (Score:1)
You support one ditrib you support hem all.
IF HP pulls this off... (Score:1)
Re:IF HP pulls this off... (Score:1)
OpenMail is CC:Mail hacked about... (Score:1)
Last I saw HP OpenMail is CC:Mail hacked so the server can run on a Unix machine rather than an NT machine.
It's takes the Mail-Client-Formerly-Known-As-The-Worst-In-The-Wo
Similar to Outlook ?? Well, about as similar as CC:Mail is to Outlook...
Outlook connectivity ?? Yeah, Outlook will read mail via VAPI or whatever it's called now, but then it also talks SMTP and POP3...
This is a bit of a non-story....
We've been thru this before and before and ... (Score:1)
Download it, check the tar -- there's no install script, it's very straightforward. Install it, then run ldd, see if it works.
Please stop this RH bashing FUD. Use your brain. Download it, check it out, THEN complain if you still think it's hoaky. Otherwise you sound like a lazy ass wanna be geek.
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OMAIL server download-- forbidden? (Score:1)
i'd like to try this. i haven't had a chance to play with it and if it works, hey, cool. if not, no big deal... i have some users who could use the proised features.
i am having difficulty in getting the OMAIL package from the server. the machine keeps telling me forbidden. i can get the other pieces, even in the server directory, i just can't get the OMAIL piece. anyone have any luck?
jose
Allows Linux client to use Exchange? (Score:1)
Thanks,
Dave Rudder
Re:OMAIL server download-- forbidden? (Score:1)
Yeah, the server is kinda flakey today. Can't
get all the pieces...
Gotta love a tar install that says to run
the untar from
Re:Does it work with the Palm? (Score:1)
So, yes Outlook does work with the Palm via this conduit. What does this mean for OpenMail? I don't know. If someone wants to write a conduit, it will work the the Palm. It depends on how open OpenMail will be. If it is clearly defined how to interface with it via text files or calls, it will be easy to make this conduit.
Re:in my OpenMail experience... (Score:2)
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
And this is worse than Outlook? (Score:1)
Use OpenMail - only if you want lots of downtime. (Score:1)
OpenMail may be fine if the corporate powers that be demand that you use X.400 crud.
My experience at my former empolyer (Alcatel - Richardson, USA) was that the OpenMail server was constantly being rebooted and down for a day or more at a time. Those rebels in R&D had Sun workstations running sendmail on their desktop. Not once in several years do I remember email for the R&D people being down.
It was great fun to laugh at those outside of R&D that had to depend on OpenMail.
Re:Allows Linux client to use Exchange? (Score:1)
would remove one of the reasons for booting into
Windows.
Outlook can listen to POP3, but it can't talk... (Score:1)
It isn't designed for the individual who justs wants mail, and shouldn't be read as such. Its for the corporation who wants to do scheduling and the such off their e-mail system, and don't want to use NT to do it.
I can't speak for whether or not the product itself works well, or if it crashes all the time as people have claimed, but I do know that the arguments being placed against it as far as Oulook connectivity and its pointlessness are far from on target.
Move in the right direction for corporate Linux (Score:1)
IMAP is part of the solution, but not good enough.
Hey, maybe I'm just not aware of it, but there really should be an Open Source project working on a competitive product to exchange/outlook.
As for OpenMail, I'm definitely going to give it a chance and take a look at it.
J.F.
Re:Server or client software (Score:2)
Buried in the massive hunk of obstreperous code that is MS Outlook is a pretty full-featured calendaring tool. Basically, it lets you create server-side schedules that others on your team can adjust. If someone is marked as attending a meeting, it appears in both the "meeting notes" view and on their personal schedules. (I don't recall MS's terms for these features, but you get the general idea).
PHBs love this kind of thing. It gives them the ability to ramp up due-dates with an effortless flick of the wrist, whereas before, they had to actually walk to your office (or call you to theirs). This doesn't even require interaction with a real human being.
(Seriously, though: this is pretty cool. I sure hope that new versions of Outlook don't break this functionality.)
Authentication Errors (Score:1)
Re:I'm looking to break my users FROM Outlook... (Score:1)
It's buggy, full of badly written and non-standards based code. 90% of the trouble with email I get calls from users on is Outlook's fault.
What do you mean by "non-standards based code"? I understand complaining about a product that does not support a lot of internet standars, but I don't know what you mean about 'standards based code', could you or someone else explain?
I'll wait for the open source community to write a 'better than outlook' program, using standard, like POP3, IMAP, vcal, etc... the only reason it hasn't happened is that people keep trying to make Outlook work.
Outlook supports POP3, IMAP, SMTP, ical, vcard, and a bunch of other internet standards. I happen to think that Outlook does work.. for me.
Syntax Error at line 10 (Score:2)
Your client is not allowed to access the requested object.
Hey, what is this? They let people get through the registration screen, assign a username and password, and then deny access to the file! Oh well, at least I can get my money back. :)
No, OpenMail is a big wrapper around Sendmail. (Score:1)
ccMail is a "supported" client of OpenMail. As
are various other mail clients, including now
Outlook.
OpenMail is a big wrapper around Sendmail to
provide features like an address directory and
(allegedly) easier maintenance, etc. It supports
LDAP and MAPI now too, which is good.
Re:Outlook can listen to POP3, but it can't talk.. (Score:2)
Can you name another client that lets you store something other than mail on an IMAP store? The M stands for Message, which most people take to mean Mail. I bet microsoft would receive holy hell from
HP provides a MAPI transport that allows Outlook to use its Openmail server to do a lot of groupware functionality, which is really cool.
Microsoft ships outlook with other such transports - one for ccMail, one for MS Mail. Compuserve wrote one to access Compuserve mail. Transend writes one that has more features for ccMail connectivity than the one Outlook has. There was even an ill-fated one written by AOL to access AOL mail, but that never got out of beta (AOL nixed it, not Microsoft)
It's up to the person or company who writes the MAPI transport to enable the functionality they want - whether it be server side calendars or just mail, it's up to them. Outlook makes it easy to write something that just downloads items to the local machine. To write a store provider as well as a transport provider (which is what it appears that HP has done) is more difficult but not undoable.
It isn't designed for the individual who justs wants mail, and shouldn't be read as such. Its for the corporation who wants to do scheduling and the such off their e-mail system, and don't want to use NT to do it.
There are a lot of reasons to use Openmail other than not wanting to use NT. HP used to have a version of Openmail for NT, actually, although they stopped producing new versions for it.
I can't speak for whether or not the product itself works well, or if it crashes all the time as people have claimed, but I do know that the arguments being placed against it as far as Oulook connectivity and its pointlessness are far from on target.
Well I think they're on target in that outlook is a common product and it's great if HP can leverage that (Along with them now supporting linux as a server platform) to get more companies to decide to use their server yet use a client that users might be more comfortable/familiar with.
One step closer... (Score:1)
Re:Server or client software (It's both) (Score:2)
a client perspective is to support an open "client of choice" paradigm.
Clients such as MS Outlook, Outlook express, MS mail, cc:Mail, LAN/Mobile,
Eudora and Netscape go against the same message store in Native mode.
"Native" means NO GATEWAYS, and no UGLY translations. So yes... OM
supports the MS Outlook client just like (or better) than NT Exchange.
The interesting thing is HP's plan to opensource their native Unix client
called OMGUI. The client has been ported to Linux and is available form
their web site. Given that HP has done the work to make the MS Outlook
client work against the Linux OM server, one can see how it would be
possible to take the opensource client (OMGUI) and quite quickly duplicate
and exceed the capabilities of MS Outlook. After all... the Linux based data store
already contains the data which is presented to the Outlook client.
On the server side OpenMail supports both the ITU and ITEF's internet protocol
suite. OpenMail is a superset of Internet and X.400/X.500. It can synchronize with
other LDAP directories,X.500 and even Domino/Notes DB's. It also supports SSL secure
access from the internet via their integration with HP's Virtual Vault offering. This is
great for mobile users and PDA users that simply want to "safely" read their mail by
entering a URL from any browser. This stuff could be big!
Runs on something other than NT... (Score:1)
Yes, it is waay better the old CCMail/Openmail crap that others have mentioned. You get full Outlook functionality Calendering/Scheduling etc.
Plus the backend runs on something other than NT. The HP website mentions that on a kick butt HPUX server you could host 20k email accounts. Id like to see exchange handle more than 2k on a box.
Heck, Ive heard rumors of a large company deploying 100 exchange servers just to support about 50k accounts. What an administrative nightmare!!!!
--John C
Re:IF HP pulls this off... (Score:1)
So does Exchange... and just about any decent enterprise messaging solution.
Re:Allows Linux client to use Exchange? (Score:1)
I got it!! (Score:1)
Re:Allows Linux client to use Exchange? (Score:2)
By default Exchange is setup as an IMAP server - so just setup pine or mutt or Netscape (or even fetchmail) to use the exchange server as an IMAP server. Exchange is also an LDAP (albeit quite buggy) server for addresses - netscape can take advantage of this, as can mutt if you use an external program - I don't know about pine.
Matt.
perl -e 'print scalar reverse q(\)-:
Re:Are they supporting Linux or Red Hat? (Score:1)
RedHat question". RedHat is just the begining.
They need to get to market quickly. If one ports to every Linux distribution right out of the gate, it delays time to market. You have to do things like quality test on every distribution. Hey... you got to start somewhere.
Re:Allows Linux client to use Exchange? (Score:1)
SCREENSHOTS! (Score:1)
Re:Are they supporting Linux or Red Hat? (Score:1)
Fewer combos to test, fewer ways to screw it up
Yuck. Stay away. (Score:1)
A previous workplace had a powerful HP box chugging and chugging away on openmail and the thing was always overworked. About 3000 moderate-to-low use mail users, something like 96 GB of disks, and mail still took about 15-30 minutes to deliver.
What really made it worse is that this place was using it as a POP server. No OpenMail clients (which were horrendous anyway) being used and POP was only semi-supported on OpenMail (this is in early 98). And you had to use HP sendmail, which was always about six to a dozen revisions behind the one everyone else was using.
One poster suggests that there are people using HP OpenMail for good uses. (Not HP, I bet!) I'll be impressed to find out what, but if you ask me, you can see OpenMail one of two ways: it's either a second- or third-rate Lotus Notes, or an incredibly wasteful MTA.
Regards,
Re:We've been thru this before and before and ... (Score:1)
It is somewhat amusing to see that it's not Linux making the headlines so much as it is Red Hat. HEH.
Re:Are they supporting Linux or Red Hat? (Score:1)
Disclaimer: I'm not RedHat bashing here; all I'm saying is that supporting Red Hat is not the same thing as supporting Linux. I have nothing against RH -- heck, I'm using it right now.
Re:And this is worse than Outlook? (Score:1)
GRYN!
It's Motif :) (Score:1)
They're pretty smart not to include screenshots.
Re:Fifty five bottles of Linux on the wall (Score:1)
Also, I recently installed all of them, and they are starting to get more compatible, not less. SuSe now has compatibility sym-links to duplicate RedHat's SysV init script system, and Caldera is getting a little less pig-headed about things too.
Even RedHat has made some changes to facilitate easier support of multiple distribs. (/var/mail,/var/spool/mail is still a sticking point, but that's relatively minor and can be fixed yourself).
-- Keith Moore
MAPI (Score:2)
Originally, Microsoft billed client-side MAPI as a "Universal Inbox" and as an OS feature -"Windows Messaging". By the time Exchange v1 (v4) was out the door, people figured that they meant no such thing, and MAPI/Outlook is pretty well tied to Exchange server for many of it's features.
So when ever someone advertises that you can use Outlook to get at their mail store, it begs the question how much of Outlook's functionality actually works. (For example, you can sorta get Notes mail from Outlook, but that's about it.)
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Re:Allows Linux client to use Exchange? (Score:2)
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Wrong and insulting "download instructions" (Score:1)
NOTE: Right click and select Save Link As... to download OenMail server software. Make sure the file type selected in the Save as type field is All Files (*.*). Left click to download OpenMail client software.
First, this is wrong -- they imply that clicking by different mouse buttons will cause their script to download different things, what is rather strange thing in itself. But second, recommendation to use "file type All files (*.*)" is nothing short of insulting -- especially for a file that in no possible way can be used on a box where "file type" and "*.*" both exist and are somehow related.
Re:It's Motif :) (Score:1)
For Pete's sake, the screenshot comment was a JOKE. A screenshot of a program that's supposed to be anything but a screensaver is idiotic. You'd optimize for glitz, not functionality.
At least it may give an idea, what percentage of screen space is wasted on large buttons and space between them.
Re:related note.... (Score:1)
then press enter.
that will put all the warez on the planet on your hard drive.
Re:I'm looking to break my users FROM Outlook... (Score:1)
I used to use Outlook 98, and I don't recall it having any support for IMAP (although, ironically, Outlook Express does). You sure about this one?
But how much does it cost??? (Score:1)
Re:I'm looking to break my users FROM Outlook... (Score:1)
Yep. The confusing part about Outlook98/2000 is the two modes - "Corporate/workgroup mode" (which does not *ship* with IMAP support but you can download a third pardy transport provider at http://www.cdc.com/imapsp) and "Internet only mode" which is geared towards the home user and ships with IMAP support.
So if you used Outlook98 in corporate/workgroup mode, that's probably why you didn't notice any mention of IMAP.
Re:Allows Linux client to use Exchange? (Score:1)
Exchange 5.5 does imap...and all kind of other more open standards stuff, but if you want more stability, i'd go with the exchange 5 server....which unfortunetaly doesn't do imap...So it's what u want..more open standards en younger (younger with M$ is more buggy), or older and more stable...we went for the latter, so i'm stuck with VMWare to read my mail, and most importantly, check my calender....The calender bit seems to be overlooked here...if one doesn't need the calender bit of exchange/outlook, all kind of other (even free in all aspects) servers come to mind..
cyaz
Re:in my OpenMail experience... (Score:1)
If you need this level of mail service (multiple channels, X.400, SMTP, strong administration authentication, good administration tools) have a look at PP, basically the next generation of MMDF.
Groupwise Groupwise Groupwise (Score:1)
We run Novell Groupwise, and it stores everything, including calendar information, in the same message store, all of which is accessible via IMAP. Schedule items are nothing but e-mail messages with a second set of RFC822-like header lines at the beginning of the body text, so if you read your mail via a non-Groupwise IMAP client, you just see "Time:" "Location:" etc. headers at the top of your message.
There's no reason in the world why this would break anything, and it's open and accessible to anyone who wants to mess with it (eg: I've written Perl scripts to check my own calendar and page me via qpage if I have a meeting coming up that meets certain criteria for being important).
If I were a wide-eyed innocent, I would say something like "Gee, I don't understand why everyone doesn't do this."
-Graham
Selfish of me (Score:1)
(I want the scanner even more than the printer!)
{!-- I've sent in requests to HP, but their public announcements have denied that there is any demand. Pity. It worked well under windows --}
Re:related note.... (Score:1)
Re:Use OpenMail - only if you want lots of downtim (Score:1)
This is amusing. The same setup is used here (OpenMail MAPI on the enterprise; sendmail for the entire Unix side I admin), and this is the norm. OpenMail goes down randomly while my single sendmail hub keeps accept()'ing away *tail wag*
Of course, I must occasionally check in with OpenMail because the win* folks generally don't know better. All I have to say is "Vive VMware!" It let me get rid of the dual-boot and shoehorn NT and all its crud into a 1.6GB partition.
I should note that Unix in general exhibits weird problems under certain conditions. Just try typo'ing the lockd line in /etc/services one day... if you have NFS, all hell will break loose. If you use NFS'd mailspools, oops. >:o)
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OpenMail BoF at LinuxWorld (Score:1)
Wednesday, August 11 at 5:30. Come talk to us about OpenMail...
Re:OpenMail BoF at LinuxWorld (Score:1)