a query

[Bruce Richardson]

On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 02:52:21AM +0000, perl wrote:
> My local council currently uses postfix to run their email system. 
> Apparently it is very slow (a minute or two to download each email for 
> anyone connected) and it doesn't 'do' meetings.

I expect they are using more than Postix, because all that does is
deliver mail.  They must have a pop or imap server on the system as
well.  If it takes more than a minute to download each message then
the box is very underpowered for the demands put on it or the people
concerned have a huge number of messages and the storage is not
appropriate for that or the box is simply very badly configured.

> 
> Because of this they want to replace it with MS Exchange Server at a 
> cost of £248,000 (over 5 years). Even at this cost they have calculated 
> this will save them £48,000 a year.
> 
> Any thoughts?

Insufficient data.  If the current mail system costs just under £100,000
per year then it's more than an Intel box running Red Hat, Postfix and
Courier - unless there's a big support contract attached.  Anyway, it's
impossible to compare the existing system to Exchange without knowing
more about it.

If the existing system doesn't do meetings and calendars, which I would
think a local council would have as much need for as any organisation,
then any open source alternative to Exchange would have to be well
researched and supported and even then you would have a fight.  Exchange
is unquestionably a bloated resource hog with some odd habits but it
offers integrated calendars and webmail and suits usually like it.

-- 
Bruce

Remember you're a Womble.