* PostPath looks to replicate Exchange
In the 1974 classic “Young Frankenstein,” Gene Wilder as the mad scientist inserts an “abnormal” brain into the head of his monster creation – bad things, and wackiness ensues. Later, he transplants portions of his own powerful brain into his creation, making him into a more functional and agreeable beast.
Users looking to make a similar brain transplant in their e-mail network – in this case, swapping a Microsoft Exchange server for a Linux box – might want to check out PostPath. The product is an e-mail and collaboration server that runs on Linux, and is intended to replace Microsoft Exchange server and exactly replicate the Exchange environment. The beauty of it, the software creators say, is that this PostPath transplant keeps the townspeople from rioting at the computer room door – users can keep their Outlook desktop client settings and BlackBerries without any painful migrations or reconfigurations.
PostPath servers sitting on a network will look like Exchange to any other Exchange servers on the network, or other platforms that use Exchange. It supports Outlook on the client side, fits into an Active Directory scheme and even supports BlackBerry clients – known in some circles to be the most riotous of townspeople. On top of all this, the server is Linux-based, so it integrates well with mixed Microsoft/Linux networks and applications running open source software stacks.
PostPath has its skeptics – several large IT vendors have tried and failed to replicate Exchange in the past, with IBM and Sun among them. But for users interested in moving from Microsoft to Linux e-mail servers as smoothly as possible, PostPath might be worth a look on an evaluation basis.
