Archive for March, 2010

GroupWise is still alive

March 29th, 2010

Over the years Novell’s GroupWise has lost a lot of ground and mind share to Exchange.  While combating Microsoft in an area of strength(Windows Server and the associated services that run on top of it) is hard enough, Novell hasn’t seemed to put the proper resources into GroupWise that are needed.

For those that may not know, outside of Notes, GroupWise is the only real competitor to Exchange in terms of a comprehensive groupware package with wide client support beyond a web interface.  There is a native client for windows and a java based client for OSX and Linux.  You can also run all of the server pieces on NetWare, SUSE Linux, and Windows.  While NetWare support will be dropped after the current version(8), the server side will still run on an large existing footprint(primarily windows).

Finally, after about a year and a half since Nokia decided to stop supporting Intellesync,  Novell has released a tech preview of their “Novell Data Synchronizer Mobility Pack” which allows GroupWise to communicate with mobile devices using the ActiveSync protocols.  It’s good to see some movement on this front.  Authorized betas are scheduled for April.  Not being able to support modern mobile devices has been a killer for GroupWise.  Hopefully for them, this beta period will be fairly short.

GroupWise still has some other issues though.  It’s management tool is the tired Console 1.  You need direct file access to do any administration.  That means, if you’re running a domain, post office, mta, gwia, or webaccess on anything but an NSS volume, you have to either VNC into that server to run a completely separate instance of C1 or come up with some workaround.  The tool chain badly needs to be fixed.  Personally, I’d prefer not to have a web based tool, but that seems to be the trend at Novell.  Either way, anything that would make it less terrible to administer would be nice.

In the end, every email solution has its quirks and issues.  If you’re looking for an Exchange replacement or something to compare it against, take a look at GroupWise, especially if you’re a mixed shop.

Some useful GW links:

GroupWise Exchange – http://www.groupwise.co.uk/
Mobility Pack Tech Preview Forum – http://forums.novell.com/novell-product-support-forums/data-synchronizer/mobility-pack-tech-preview/
Official GroupWise Support Forums – http://forums.novell.com/novell-product-support-forums/groupwise/

*I’m not a Novell employee.  I don’t own any Novell stock.  I’m just a “Novell admin”.*

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Posted in Email

Got preliminary approval for PICC Conference

March 15th, 2010

After a bit of discussion, I got approval to go to the PICC Conference in Jersey.  I’m looking to jump on the storage and NAS/SAN workshops.  I little knowledge of IPv6, so I’m going to jump on that session as well.  I haven’t gone to a conference in at least half a decade, so I’m looking forward to this.

I’ll probably be the only person who admins a “Novell” network at the conference.  ;)

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Posted in General

I finally broke down and got a smart phone

March 8th, 2010

My wife and I picked up a couple of Droids yesterday.  Her phone was broken and mine was up for the new in two.  Since they are currently 2 for 1, we took the jump.

This is my first real smart phone.  I like it so far.  There are a ton of options.  I can see why this platform as presented(the normal android interface), wouldn’t be ideal for every day users, and really pointed towards people who aren’t afraid to mess around with their phone.

I like the Gmail integration.  The touch screen works better than I thought it would and I have no problems with the on screen keyboard.  If I’m doing a bit more typing, I’ll slide the physical keyboard out.  Wireless on a phone is great as I’m normally around a wireless AP when at work or at home.  The 3G will work fine in between.

There are a couple of things that bug me a bit.  Novell is still working on their sync tool for modern phone to replace the GroupWise Mobile server.  Outside of the SMTP and IMAP combo, there’s no good way to get your GroupWise mail on the phone.  The default GW8 webaccess interface doesn’t work with the default browser or the dolphin browser.  You have to switch it to basic mode to open mail.  Not that aesthetics are everything, but the basic mode in webaccess is just that, BASIC.  For now, I’ll just be forwarding my Zenoss and other SMTP alerts to my gmail account.

I downloaded a task killer tool which I find myself using often.  I’m not sure how much I really need to be using it, but to keep the battery from getting sucked down, I’m using it.  That’s a bit annoying and takes me back to the old Mac operating system where you had to manage your RAM manually for each application.  It’s not the end of the world, but I guess it’s the price you pay for multitasking.

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Posted in Email, General