ximian connector

[Ice9]

Hi all,

A fairly big migration-project I'm currently working on involves hooking up workstations running Evolution to an Exchange 5.5 server.
Replacing the Exchange server is not yet an option.

The problem we're facing now is that the users make pretty heavy use of the sharing options of Exchange/Lookout 2000 and to be able to have the same functionalities I would have to use Exchange/Evolution with connector, but the current connector only works with Exchange 2000.

So the question is: Does anyone know where I can get the source for ximian connector version 1.0 (since that one used to work in combination with Exchange 5.5)?
I've Googled the subject but didn't find anything useful.

thanks.

[Void Main]

I've only seen from 1.4.x on up which is the version it was at when it went GPL. I never used any earlier versions but I'll keep my eyes open.

[Ice9]

Ok, thanks
But I have a few updates.
Apparently any version below 1.4 wouldn't work with recent versions of evolution.
I don't know if it's due to structural changes within the evolution code or simply to library incompatibilities but even if I were to find a prior version of the connector it would most likely be binaries and it wouldn't work with the latest evolution (which we plan to use)

So I'm almost back to square 1, does anyone have another idea for connection evolution clients to an Exchange 5.5, other than using the shitty web client which is included in Exchage 5.5?

[Void Main]

I was wondering about the older versions of the client working with the newer versions of Evolution. The only solution I can think of is to not even use the Connector but to turn on the IMAP and LDAP services on your Exchange server and set up Evolution to use an IMAP connection to your server. This would give you all of your mail folders that reside on the server but it will not give you the server side calendar, tasks, etc. The only other alternative I can think of would be to replace Exchange (not necessarily a bad move if you can pull it off).

[Ice9]

IMAP and LDAP are gonna be set up anyway, but this way Exchange will act as a "regular" mail server and will not provide the shared calendar and shared resources functionalities.

Moving away from Exchange is scheduled but it's not gonna happen before several months.
I know the timing is really bad and it would have been better from a business point of view to migrate Exchange before migrating the clients, but this is the decision that has been taken so I guess I'll have to live with it.

[Void Main]

Just curious, what are you planning on replacing Exchange with? I am wondering what people think of the SUSE OpenExchange:

http://www.suse.com/us/business/products/openexchange/

I don't know much about it but it looks to be mainly web based. I see there is also a connector for Outlook but it seems odd that there isn't currently one for Evolution (being worked on):

http://www.novell.com/products/evolution/features.html

[Ice9]

OpenExchange will certainly be an option but it will depend on the requirements.
The biggest challenge in this case will be that the environment will consist of Windows and Linux workstations.
Normally we work with Bynari when there's need for Exchange functionalitiesin a Windows client environment, but they provide a plugin for Outlook only (it can work as a regular POP3/IMAP server with any mail client though)
So we'll have to look if there's any possibility to sync a Bynari Insight server with Suse's OpenExchange ....

And of course there will be other players involved in that part of the migration too