Version 11.4 of Scalix, released in May, offers several new features and upgrades. Web-based access has been improved by adding theme customization and an overlay calendar, which allows you to view multiple calendars at the same time in day, week, and month views. Firefox 3 is officially supported. The new release supports data feeds (RSS and ATOM) using Scalix proxy folders. Optional antispam and zero-hour antivirus, based on Commtouch technology, have been added. CentOS 4 and 5, which were not supported as platforms for previous versions, now are.

Scalix offers four packages: the Community Edition, Small Business Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Hosting Edition. The four vary by the number of standard and premium users, support levels, and additional advanced features. The difference between standard and premium users is that premium users can have access to advanced features of Scalix, such as establishing an Outlook connection with Scalix, while standard users are limited to basic features such as POP/SMTP/IMAP, calendar, and Web-based email -- so for Scalix to be a true Exchange alternative, most of your users must be premium users. While it is true that mail servers such as Postfix and Sendmail can't provide all those features, other open source mail servers, such as Courier Mail Server, can in a webmail environment. Another popular mail collaboration suite, Zimbra, can provide the same functionalities, but an Outlook connector is not available on its open source edition.

For the free Scalix Community Edition, you can have unlimited standard users and up to 10 premium users. The Community Edition doesn't support advanced features and add-ins like high availability, antispam, antivirus, and Exchange coexistence. The Hosting Edition offers all the features, including multi-server support, but requires 100 premium users as its minimum when you purchase it. Choosing the appropriate edition boils down to the number of premium users you want. For complete details of Scalix editions, check the company's comparison chart.

Scalix deployment

With an abundance of high quality documentation and resources, installation of Scalix is easy and straightforward if you meet all of the software's requirements and have the necessary dependencies. Before installation, be sure that your Linux distribution is supported. Version 11.4 runs under Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4 and 5, CentOS 4 and 5, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 4 and 5. Fedora 7 and openSUSE 10.2 are also supported, but running Scalix on either is not recommended for a production environment because these two distros are community versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server respectively, and important patches and updates available for the enterprise versions may not always be available for the community versions. Finally, 1GB of memory is recommended and 1GB of disk space is required for the base installation, plus additional space for user mailboxes.

......

Please access the below link to view the full content.

Original link: http://www.linux.com/feature/144...