Well the experiment to only run Linux while on a road trip was a partial failure. I had to boot into Windows to get some work done that involved email and Exchange. I can't seem to wean myself from Exchange. I thought I had Evolution working but it keeps locking up on me. I've always had problems with Evolution but I had high hopes for the current version and Fedora 11. It works flawlessly while directly connected to my Exchange 2003 server. Working remotely is another story altogether. It works sporadically. There will be long pauses of up to five minutes where it seems to be locked up then suddenly it's working fine for a few minutes. Eventually it will lock up completely. I switched to using OWA (Outlook Web Access) instead. The OWA experience with Firefox is not the best. OWA in Exchange 2003 really needs IE with ActiveX to be productive. I've tested Exchange 2007 and it has a much better OWA Experience with a non IE client. I'll be updating my Exchange server to 2007 in the near future. Hopefully the combination of OWA, Exchange 2007, and Firefox in Fedora 11 will be more productive.
My other problem is my Blackberry. I haven't found a way to sync the BB and Exchange in Linux. I could setup a Blackberry Enterprise Server. This will sync Exchange and the BB over the cellular carrier in real time. It would cost me more money. I'd have to upgrade my wireless plan from BIS to BES. I'd also be running another server. Even virtualized it seems like overkill.
Other than the Exchange problems the experiment has been a success. VPN and RDP access to the networks I manage hasn't been a problem. I've recieved some Excel attachments that Open Office had no problems with. I received some .PDF files that weren't a problem. So far I have to say I prefer Windows 7 over Fedora 11 but it has nothing to do with the OS. It's all about the applications and it seems as long as I'm married to Exchange I'll be running Windows.
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3 comments:
Perhaps you could skip EXchange 2007 and move on immediately to Exchange 2010 (just RTMed) -- those pesky upgrades are often a nuisance.
I'd like to move directly to 2010 but most of my customers use SBS. It will be a while before 2010 is in a shipping version of SBS. I like to run the same software as my customers. Great idea though.
fedora looks gorgeous but windows 7 has kazillion of apps and games. i used to have fedora 11 on my dell 1501 but when modern warfare 2 came out i had to come back to the heavy weight champion of OSs.
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