Just because Digg is floundering under the weight of “I just switched to Linux” submissions, it doesn’t mean that Linux on the Desktop is making significant inroads in corporate adoption.

Here’s the kicker. Microsoft Exchange Server is a honking great MONSTOR of a standard in larger businesses, and for good reason. While I’d probably kill myself if I had to pay for it or maintain it, as an end user, there is much to love about what Exchange does.

Got a desktop and a laptop? No problem. Exchange server will sync your inbox, folders, contacts and calendar.

Use a mobile device? No big deal. Add a contact to your phone, and it will sync to exchange server, and that contact will be added to your outlook contacts.

Your PC died from virus infections? ( Well of course it did.. it’s running XP ).. Just get another one, configure outlook to your exchange server and bang, you’ve got all your stuff back.

Need to setup a meeting with someone? Find them with Exchange Servers central directory, and check out their calendar to find a good time for a meeting.

In summary, life is sweet when you connect your Microsoft OS PC or Microsoft OS mobile device to your Microsoft Exchange server, and crank up your Microsoft Outlook application. Even your Microsoft Office installed Mac can get in on the act with Entourage. How lovely.

Switch to Linux? You’re screwed.

You have three options:

1) Use Evolution Mail which supports the full Exchange feature set through the provided connector.. except that the connector is horrible! It’s buggy. It’s slow. It’s unreliable.. it will drive you nuts.

2) POP or IMAP to the exchange server. It’s better, but forget about calendaring and contacts integration. Calendar events arrive as emails and you loose a feature you’ve become very accustomed to. Group calendars? Forget it.

3) Depending on the security settings of your Exchange server, you might be able to connect using Outlook ( running under Wine emulation ), either directly or through a VPN.. Yuck.

So how do you solve the problem of connecting a Linux desktop to Exchange Server? You don’t.

The problem isn’t Linux, the problem is that you’re buying into the belief system that Microsofts has chosen for you. Not only are you spending out the wazoo for Exchange server, but as a knock on effect, you’re spending out multiple wazoos for MS Office so you can connect to exchange server! Then of course, you’re primarily sticking to Microsoft OS, because what choice do you have!

Dee-De-Dee!

Let’s look at MS Office first. You need it, right?

Wrong.

You need to be able to work on Word and Excel spreadsheets, but you don’t need Office for that. Suns OpenOffice can do all that for you. Available for Mac, PC and Linux, Open Office is a VERY MS Office compatible productivity suite, and it’s FREE. I say “very” because some people tell me it’s not - but I can honestly say that I’ve never in my usage seen any issues.

Let’s do some cost analysis on that:

If you have 10 employees, setting them all up with OpenOffice costs 10 x $0 = $0 If you have 100 employees, setting them all up with OpenOffice costs 100 x $0 = $0 If you have 1000 employees, setting them all up with OpenOffice costs 1000 x $0 = $0

Get it?

Upper management wouldn’t go for it? OK - price out what will happen if you buy MS Office for THEM, and whatever other subgroup you choose ( perhaps accounting? ), and give the other zillion people in your organization OpenOffice. Trust me.. Money talks.

Ah - but what about EMAIL you cry! Microsoft products are the only thing that reliably connect to Microsoft Exchange server!

You’re right - so ditch it.

Go and look at Zimbra. It’s an Open Source Exchange Server KILLER, and Yahoo recently bought it for a gazillion dollars. Why? They haven’t really said, but I imagine it has something to do with a reply to Gmail rolling out IMAP. Things could get interesting if you’re one of those people willing to sacrifice privacy for free services.

Zimbra is easier to install. It’s easier to maintain. It’s easier to scale.. and if you switch someone from Exchange to Zimbra they truly won’t even realize you’ve done it. Appointments, group calendars, contacts - it all works just the same. They truly won’t see any difference from their end. Oh - that’s not true.. if they use the webmail application they will get a shock. It makes Exchange Server Webmail look like a bucket of boiled excrement.

Then what?

Your C-level guys can use Outlook or Entourage just as they always have. PC people using OpenOffice can use either Outlook Express, or the Evolution Mail Beta Your Mac people can use iMail and iCal.. they’ll love you forever. They could alternatively use a Beta version of Evolution. Your geeks can now use Linux, and use Evolution

Then we’d get to see some truly AWESOME Digg articles, about how corporations who look at their internal usage find that 40% of their employees only use the internet, email and office tools - so can easily be switched to Linux for cost savings, security, productivity gains, and so they can show off their spinning cube desktop thingy and wobbly windows to PC and Mac users ;-)

The bottom line is that when Corporations release the strangle hold they put on themselves by using Exchange Server, the results can be nothing but great.

The Goal: Build a cheap Ubuntu Linux box for movie and photo viewing on my widescreen TV

I recently experimented with connecting my Xubuntu Linux laptop to my TV and found the results to be interesting enough to seriously rethink my entire media strategy.

It inspired me to embark on a project with a simple goal. To get a PC dedicated to the task. I’m not going to install “Ubuntu Media Server” which is a distribution in it’s own right.. There is no need - it’s just Ubuntu Linux with some extra stuff - so I’m going to install Ubuntu.

My criteria were:

• Spend less than $350
• Leave the door open to upgrade to gigabit ( fast ) network and high end video card
• Find a PC that fit in a space 14.8” high
• Find a PC with low noise levels

Is $350 / entry level too much to ask? NO. Since Microsoft’s launch of Vista, you’ll find that “entry level” for Vista means “loaded!” for Linux!

Build or Buy? What is the best foundation for a Media Center PC

Well that really depends on what special offers you can find, but, it’s more and more common to be able to buy a PC for the same or less than the sum of it’s parts.

I considered one of the cheapo Ubuntu PCs, like the Walmart $199, but reseach that and you’ll find it’s not very expandable - it’s micro sized components in a big box, and more suited to installing in my car than my TV room.. another project brews.

I tracked prices and offers at Tigerdirect.com ( build your own ), HP, Dell and retailers like Circuit City, Best Buy, MicroCenter and CompUSA and decided that I really could buy something within the price range ready made, with the advantage of user reviews to help me gauge fan noise potential.

In the end, the offers at Dell outshone the competion, and their 14.5” high cases closed the deal for me.

How to get the best deal at Dell.com

In a word, “experiment”. There are at least 3 different paths you can take to get the same hardware at Dell.com, with a price variance of up to $60!

On the Inspiron 531 line, you get to choose between standard and “Slim” for the same price. Either could do, but know that the “Slim” version has more limited video driver possibilities - it only accepts half height cards.

The three routes are:

• Build your own ( which takes you down a Vista path )
• Search site for “Ubuntu” which takes you to the Ubuntu Linux Dell PCs
• “Built For you” which offers you a small selection of prebuilt Vista Machines

Try them all! You’ll find price variation like:

• Monitor can be removed from package to save up to $170
• The optical disk on some is a decent Rewrite DVD, and some is more basic with a $30 upgrade option
• Some come with Linux as the OS, but the base hardware is often more expensive!

Another option is to google “Dell Coupons” and see what you come up with. When I ordered, the way to go was the “Built For You” non-customizable machines with the default options, but removed monitor.

• $329
• Free Shipping
• Decent AMD processor ( my preference )
• 1 gig RAM
• 250gig disk
• Onboard nVidia ( for Ubuntu, if in doubt get nVidia )
• Decent Rewriteable DVD that other routes charge an extra $30 for
• A Vista license ( for what it’s worth )

That’s pretty meaty. Just before Vista release I bought my current desktop, a very similar HP for $600 and it has a slightly slower processor!

Tips on Ordering from Dell and getting your gear QUICKLY

Dell go out of their way to avoid giving you shipping estimates during the order process. Their FAQ talks about build times of 3-6 days, but doesn’t make any promises.

Before ordering call DELL customer service and ask what the lead time on builds at the moment. If you have a local DELL store call them too. The answers I got were “about 10 days” and “about 6 days”.

After ordering, the shipping estimate I got from DELL was 30 days!

DELL pride themselves on customer service, and a follow up email detailing that I got verbal estimates of 6 to 10 days got things in motion. I persisted, and the result was an overnight Saturday delivery, 8 days after my order.

I think if you keep going in a DELL email customer support thread, they will continue to make the effort to give you what you consider to be good service. If you don’t ask, you won’t get.

Next steps. Coming very soon