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Feature Request - SmarterMail - Web Service
Idea shared by tikicoder - 1/12/2015 at 12:53 PM
Proposed
With the push from microsoft to support mono and everything dealing with vNext.  It would be nice if the web service could be deployed on Mono so that one could run the web interface from a linux machine but let the smtp portion do its own thing.  Why run IIS if you do not need to?  It also would allow it to be more flexable.  The next request would be fore smartermail to be mono support so we could run it on linux.  Because I am in the process of shifting all my projects to vNext so once it launches I can switch them to a linux server so I can separate my database server and web server to separate servers in a cost effective way.

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I agree this would be nice but being that there are services that require Windows I can't see this happening for quite some time.
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I figure. But it would be a step. I figure its easier to request this then to request everything to work with mono. Plus most people would have atleast 1 windows server because of MS SQL Server.
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As a developer I can tell you that to re-write an entire application in another language and ensure it is stable and secure would be a major undertaking (ie hellishly expensive). Also the gui components would need to be re-written to not use dotnet / aspx or other Microsoft technologies. The switch in languages to do that would involve a whole new developer team with skills in languages such as PHP, Python or other non-MS languages. That would also double the support requirements and costs with two teams - one for each stream.
 
SmarterMail is written specifically as a replacement to a Microsoft Technology - ie Exchange. It makes sense to keep it purely in the MS camp.
 
To keep other technologies compliant when you swap to linux  would also be difficult. Active Directory is one that springs to mind immediately. The API and specs are not always open or easy to comply with. iMap is one causing huge issues with even larger dev groups such as Google having open tickets with MS for two or more years in regards to iMap issues with outlook and standard iMap resources.
 
There are two other projects that allow outlook Native connections (please excuse me using competitor names in this thread) ZenTyal and Zimbra. both have issues integrating into an MS environment. I run servers using both those technologies and the pain involved in getting them working has been immense. And before anyone says that's cause I'm an MS man, I've worked with Linux since Caldera RC 0.6.?  and have run commercial Linux Servers for over 15 years. I'm also a Lotus Domino expert and have worked with over 12 different types of commercial mail server in my time ( not including counting different versions of Exchange).
 
It is very unlikley any change would be made by SmarterTools (and I cant speak for them but only in my own opinion) purely to make it Linux compliant. Linux already has well tested POP, SMTP, IMAP, Spam removal etc stacks. From a business point of view Smartertools is  not likely to compete in that market.
 
My 2.5c worth :)
 
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Your comment is invalid. please reread my post. Microsoft is pushing hard to make .net fully compatible with unix, linux, and mac using mono. I am not currently asking to make the service native Linux compatible. I am saying to get it to run in mono. And even to make the service Linux compatible it would be to use mono so it stays as a .net application. So there is no full rewrite. I am a developer as well. I have created several apps that work both Windows and Linux In .net as long as mono is installed. My suggestion is to require mono in a Linux environment. That means same dev team, just debugging the quirks that arise in linux. Again I am just also saying the Web interface.

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