The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 5 (of 5) - Outlook client with open source exchange server?

Outlook client with open source exchange server?

What would it take to make Outlook clients compatible with OpenXchange or Evolution groupware/mail servers?

No one has done it yet. I'm figuring it must be too hard or too risky.

newToOSS
Tuesday, August 31, 2004

But withing 2 years you will have a name in the industry.

Wednesday, September 1, 2004

http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/understanding/outlook/

Chris Altmann
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

My first guess is that Outlook (not Outlook Express) clients use an API, named MAPI, to talk to Exchange.

So to make it compatible with other servers, you would add a MAPI interface to those servers (i.e. write a DLL that implements the MAPI interface).

Outlook Client <-> YourMAPI.DLL <-> AnyServer

Christopher Wells
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

I think you may want to take a look at:

http://www.toltec.co.za/
http://www.sourcextreme.com/

Also,

http://www.kroupware.org/ and
http://www.kolab.org/

have some coverage on that matter.

Best regards,
Stefan

Stefan
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

Scalix already exists and does what you want.

Mike
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

Thanks for the resources folks.

Regarding Scalix, I just took a look at their web site. I swear, that for the past year, I have read on multiple occasions of IT professionals passing on alternatives to Exchange because there is no compatibility with Outlook.

I find it strange that no one heard of Scalix. Is there something I am missing, or is it a simple lack of marketing and getting the word out?

newToOSS
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

Ahhh, I see. Scalix is not free...duh.

newToOSS
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

I hadn't heard of it either, until this last issue of Forbes.

Mike
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

There is also Bynari Connector, which is similar to a product that Toltec makes. It lets Outlook talk to an IMAP server as though it were Exchange.

Nate Silva
Thursday, September 2, 2004