I stumbled onto this blog post earlier today — from dkpw’s Wikedfire — explaining how you can potentially install Novell’s GroupWise on Ubuntu. Novell doesn’t support GroupWise on Ubuntu. So, do dkpw’s step-by-step directions work? I must concede: I haven’t tried the install. But the mere mention of Novell GroupWise and Canonical’s Ubuntu in the same sentence raises some interesting considerations.
First a little background. In the 1990s, GroupWise was quite a popular groupware system. At one point, then Novell President Joe Marengi (now at Austin Ventures) predicted GroupWise could overcome either Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange to be the world’s No. 2 groupware platform. But GroupWise’s popularity faded as Novell retrenched throughout the late 1990s.
Of course, that’s super-old news. Fast forward a decade, and Novell has made considerable progress with its SUSE Linux focus. And yes, Novell still invests in GroupWise. It’s now a niche alternative in the groupware market. And I doubt Novell will ever take the step to support GroupWise on Ubuntu. This little thread from the Novell forums shows how Novell directs Ubuntu-related GroupWise inquiries to try OpenSUSE instead.
Open to Alternatives?
But here’s a potential twist: Novell continues to examine whether to shift GroupWise to an open source business model. And if GroupWise became open source, I suspect a GroupWise “community” would work hard to ensure the groupware system supported Ubuntu and other Linux distributions.
I’m not predicting that day will come anytime soon. I spoke with Novell Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon in January 2009 about the possibility of GroupWise shifting to an open source model. Dragoon told me Novell regularly evaluates that possibility, but at the time no such plans for GroupWise were in place.
I wonder: Will the day come when GroupWise goes open source? And if so, would more Ubuntu shops give it a try?
WorksWithU is updated daily. Don’t miss a single post. Sign up for our RSS and Twitter feeds (available now) and newsletter (coming in 2009).
As someone who was a GroupWise admin in the 90s and a serious Ubuntu user now I’d LOVE to see GW opensourced.
And run on Ubuntu!
TomM: Great to hear from you. But let me play devil’s advocate … WHY would you like to see GroupWise on Ubuntu? Why not use a range of other email systems (Zimbra, etc.)? Would welcome your additional thoughts. And I’m certainly curious to see if Novell ever open sources GroupWise.
I have installed groupwise on ubuntu.. It works great…
Tom@3:
1. Why did you install GroupWise on Ubuntu? For those who aren’t familiar with GroupWise, you can certainly educate readers about the potential business benefits of GroupWise on Ubuntu.
2. Also, did you use the tips offered by DKPW, the blogger I mentioned in the first paragraph far above?
I’ve been using GroupWise client on Ubuntu for years — since ’06 at least. Why? Because it’s what my organization has been using for mail for years. Why would I not want a full-featured client?
What you need to understand is that, like Outlook/Exchange, GroupWise is not just a mail client — it’s a client for the GroupWise groupware server. If you want the full features of that system, you have to use the client.
What’s the point? When you buy GroupWise you are entitled to SLES licenses.. why go to the hassle of making it work on Ubuntu and end up with a system that Novell won’t support? It makes no sense at all.
@Marvin Huffaker – SLES is a server. SLED is the desktop. SLED is lightyears behind Ubuntu so the reason is simple. Ubuntu works.
@Joe Panettieri – GW continues to be #3 and used widely in medium to large enterprises. SLED is well behind, in many respects, to Ubuntu however I would rather use the windows version of GW under WINE (which works well) vs the far slower GW java client if I had to run GW. Running GW under SLED via Java for many years, I felt the tremendous pain, but did not have to run windows so my pain was lessened substantially. I now use an open solution so I have a choice in clients.
The reasoning is simple. Ubuntu excels compared to SLED and users use what they have to use when the server is out of their control.
I think you need to clarify in this article that you’re talking about just the Groupwise client, and not the Groupwise server. The comments section is muddled with confusion because people are referencing both as if they’re the same thing.
Honestly, as a stockholder I would like to see Novell succeed. As an IT professional I would love to see a REASONABLE alternative to Microsoft for small business (which means replacing Exchange). Lotus Notes is NOT an option along these lines. As an opensource advocate and contributor, I would love to support Novell’s potential through an opensource Groupwise client AND server. This would allow Novell to gain market acceptance and slowly replace Microsoft Exchange (and its Small Business Server platform) through Suse Linux and Groupwise.
Hi guys,
It was my post and site which was referenced by Panettieri.
My company has used GW for over 8 years. We’re an ad agency and have a mixture of PCs (XP mostly) and Macs. The IT Dept used to use SLED but it was just too cut down, hence the move to Ubuntu. I’m experienced with Slackware and Debian and so was able to determine a methodology for running GW under Unbuntu.
Sadly, (in one way) we are about to move our 250 users from GW to Gmail. This will save us tens of thousands of pounds on Novell and BB licensing. Cost savings aside, GW caused us so many issues. We have about 8 companies and domain names within our group with users wishing to have multiple addresses, the only way we found to run these was to go to caching mode and set up IMAP accounts. The servers could not cope with the demands of so many IMAP accounts, as well as iPhone and mobile device IMAP connections. There were also calendar and meeting request timing issues with our clients, most of whom use Exchange. You and I know that GW servers and Exchange determine DST in different ways, GW is more accurate but my users don’t care – they ended up looking stupid by attending client meetings an hour early or late depending on the season.
We’re also looking at replacing all the F&P services currently on NetWare with Ubuntu servers. After much testing of SLES and SLED, simply put, these offerings are over complicated, slow, extremely fussy to update and nowhere near as flexible as Ubuntu to use in the real world. OpenLDAP, OpenSLL, Kereberos and Samba will get my users connected to all the services they need – on Ubuntu for no cost.
Writing the above does not make me happy. I’ve used Novell products since 92, but they have dropped the ball. SLES is bloated and SLED too cut down for the marketing and advertising world. MY users will retain either MS Win 7 or Mac on the desktop, depending on job function.
Server side, anyone not wanting an MS world should definitely look at g-mail for mail and Ubuntu for servers. I’m sorry to say that in my opinion Novell can no longer hack it.
Yours
dkpw