Alternatives to Microsoft Small Business Server

[sbeguy]

Hi,

I'm looking for alternatives to running my company on MS Small Business Server? It's fairly expensive plus I also still have to go buy MS Office and XP or Vista licenses.

Thanks,
sbeguy

[Pete334]

What type of budget are looking at?

[HostRail.com]

You might want to look into a Linux VPS system. They are much cheaper and more reliable, plus there is no licensing fees.
Check out this link for free alternatives to MS that can be set up on a VPS or a dedicated server. http://www.opengroupware.org/

Let me know if I can help,

[ehow]

There are a few linux small business servers on the market.

COLLAX, NITIX, and NOWS SBE, links below:

http://www.collax.com
http://www.nitix.com
http://www.novell.com/smallbiz

The Collax product is pretty rough and not very easy unless your a linux guru. I looked at this a while back and did see how I could deploy this at a customer. It's missing a lot of features compared to MS SBS.

Nitix is now owned by IBM. I haven't really looked to deep into what they are doing.

NOWS SBE is Novell's small business server. I've installed this at a number of customers with great success. You don't need to know linux, it's easy to use and fully featured compared to MS SBS.