NOTE: This is not for general purpose use - CAP_SYS_ADMIN grants the container a large number of dangerous privileges - this should be used only by a sysadmin (Ops) - not a developer - for the purpose of containerizing infrastructure. Some of my insights gained on running systemd within docker - I’m aware the general idea is to run a single process, but that’s for developers. I’m a sysadmin, so I know that underlying “docker” as a management system is a full featured Linux namespace/cgroup facility allowing me to run a fully containerized Linux userland.
In an effort to do some finance management I’ve switched from a dedicated server at $132/month USD to a VPS hosted by Burst.NET for the eminently reasonable sum of $10/month. For this price I get 50GB of disk space, 1GB of RAM and 1.5GHz of allocated CPU clock - more than I’ll need! I’m also working on bringing the screenshot gallery up to date with a comment system, tagging and social network connectivity.
For the first two parts of this review series, please view the following links:
Practically Replacing Microsoft Exchange Server - A 3 Part Series - 1 of 3 Practically Replacing Microsoft Exchange Server - A 3 Part Series - 2 of 3 - Zimbra Collaboration Suite Kerio MailServer 6.5 - The Exchange Killer
Kerio MailServer, like Zimbra, has until only recently been an ‘almost but not quite’ Exchange alternative. It has offered Outlook support and integration with Active Directory since 2002, but did not initially support groupware features such as calendaring and shared contacts properly until years later.
**** Zimbra Collaboration Suite - A Full Exchange Replacement
For a long time, Zimbra has been an ‘almost but not quite’ Exchange alternative - it offered the web GUI and the Outlook compatibility, but not the standards based calendar protocol (CalDAV) or the mobile device support of its big brother. Zimbra’s latest version, which has only been in the wild for a few months, is different.
Client Software Compatibility
Zimbra provides an Outlook connector enabling Windows users to continue using the app they were trained on.
Great review here from Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal. An unbiased look at some of the things techies don’t mind doing, but your average user would find utterly stifling. Check this out.
“We choose Gentoo… not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to measure and organize the best of our energies and skillz, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and because of the pJE4R.”
-- John F. Kennedy
UPDATE: I had originally titled this article “Home movies with Linux: Beginning the exploration (of things Linux can’t do)”, but have since changed the title to be a bit more fair. It is a given that Linux isn’t suited to certain tasks, but rather than show these things up as embarrassing shortcomings I’d much prefer to demonstrate these areas of weakness to people who strongly believe Linux should replace everyone’s Mac / PC tomorrow.
