Tired of windows and can’t afford a Mac? We’ve got the perfect solution for you – Ubuntu 10.04 LTS with OpenOffice 3.2, Evolution 2.30 and the Exchange MAPI connector. Until now, the major roadblocks standing in the way of replacing your Windows workstation with a Linux distribution revolved around the Microsoft Exchange 2007 server and its collaborative functions. Specifically, the problems Linux and Evolution users ran into revolved around the calendar function – meeting requests, updates and interoperability with iPhone and Blackberry calendars.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS can be downloaded on Ubuntu’s site – http://www.ubuntu.com – burn to a CD, install and get ready.

Once installed, issue the commands “sudo apt-get update” and “sudo apt-get upgrade” then reboot.
After rebooting, install the package “evolution-mapi” and configure Evolution to use an “Exchange MAPI” connection in your profile. This functions similar to Outlook where the workstation and Exchange 2007 server are both behind the firewall.

The newly configured profile will function identically to Outlook – calendar updates, contacts, etc will work properly as well as updates from iPhones and Blackberries.