So I am talking to a good friend of mine about deploying technology for small business clients.  For many of our clients that have less that 50 desktops we install Microsoft Small Business Server 2003.  My buddy asked why we wouldn’t just save the customer the cost of the Microsoft licensing and install a Linux equivalent.  My response was, “there isn’t any Linux equivalent to SBS”.  Now my friend isn’t a Linux expert but he did have some good points so I decided to give Linux another shot.  I looked around and found that Ubuntu has been getting some good reviews so I went with that.

I downloaded Ubuntu 6.06 Server and installed it on a P4 with 2G of RAM.  The install was easy enough, actually VERY easy.  (My daughter accompanied me on this and helped name the server BobUbuntu).  After the install I decided to start my review with mail services.  I reviewed the Ubuntu documentation for mail services and that is where I gave up..  Is this what Linux distros have to offer for mail?  I’m sorry but our clients are used to a bit more functionality than a basic POP/SMTP server.

Ok, that wasn’t a fair fight at all and I didn’t give it a chance.  If this is typical of a Linux server mail system, then I don’t think Microsoft has anything to worry about.  Where is the web mail interface, calendaring, public folders, etc?  These are all things that are just part of Exchange.  What about collaboration tools like Sharepoint? 

I did a cursory search for connecting a mobile device to a Linux based mail server and found little useful information or anything that looked very easy.  These days connecting a Palm or Windows Mobile device to an Exchange server is child’s play.

I really don’t get it.  What benefits do small businesses get from implementing Linux?

I will openly admit that I am certainly lacking on my Linux skills, but I don’t see how even a seasoned Linux pro could provide the same functionality as Microsoft does with an SBS server.  I know I shouldn’t even post this, but I just can’t help myself.  I’ll take this as an opportunity for someone to point me in the direction of a resource that can prove me wrong.