John’s Tech Blog for Lawyers

I recently read a review of ClearSynch by Christel Burris in TechnoLawyer’s TechnoFeature: Review: ClearSync 2 for Syncing and Sharing Calendars and Contacts. I am in full agreement that shared calendars and contacts in multi-user environments provide are invaluable communications resources. But what about shared document management, resource allocation, timesheets, file managers, project managers, and user/group permission management, and the security risk of storing all of this information on a third party’s computer system? These features call for some flavor of groupware.
The good news is that there are a few options. The better news is that one of the options is free to download. It is an open source application so you can add onto it, tweak it, or customize it to fit your needs, and it doesn’t require any subscription to use. This option in my office is eGroupware.
So what is eGroupware? It is a groupware server, translated into more than 25 languages, that runs on Linux, Mac, Windows and other operating systems, and that can be accessed from any common internet browser like Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer.

eGroupware Server Requirements:
As the name implies, the first thing you need is a server. Before you stop reading because you don’t want to invest in a high end server hardware, I should tell you about my humble ’server’. For those who are unfamiliar with what exactly a server is, it is simply a computer dedicated to one or more tasks. e.g. holding your files, collecting your mail, hosting your website, etc. The application uses very little system overhead, and can be run on an LAMP or WAMP server. In my office, I run eGroupware on my mail and file server. I installed a LAMP server on an outdated desktop. My machine, which lives in the corner of a closet, has a 1.2Ghz AMD Athlon processor, 640 MB of memory, a 40 GB hard drive, and a network card. I don’t even have the machine hooked up to a monitor since all of the configuration can be done via ssh (a secure telnet session). And even this machine averages about 95% cpu idle time, although the memory does get used by the mail server. All that while running my file server, WebDAV server, groupware server, mail server, IMAP server, Spamassassin and a few other applications.
A LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL Php) or WAMP (Windows Apache MySql Php) server is relatively straight forward to install and set up. If you are not too paranoid about security, you can use Ubuntu Server, http://ubuntu.org, which has an option to actually install a LAMP server during the setup prompts. If you have a old Windows machine, you can install Windows versions of Apache 2, MySql, and Php on an existing machine (although I would NEVER trust it to be secure on the Internet). Or, if you are paranoid, like me, then you can base your system on OpenBSD, or your other favorite distribution. Again, the key components are Apache, MySql, and Php. Each distribution has its own server installation instructions that range anywhere from a step-by-step walkthrough (see Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora), to efficient but enigmatic (see OpenBSD, SlackWare, etc).

Installation of eGroupware
The installation of the program is very straight-forward. Several Linux distributions actually offer eGroupware as a package. Installation is as easy as selecting the package and telling the system to install it.
If you want to install the package manually, simply download the latest version to the server, unzip/untar the package, and then copy it to your web base directory in Apache (usually /var/www). If you copy it to the your base directory in Apache (usually /var/www), then you can reach the program by pointing a web browser (on another computer) to http://servername/egroupware. From this point, the installation instructions are reasonably well explained in the package and on the eGroupware website. All computers are different, but I did not run across any question that I could not find an answer to on their website.

Getting up and Running:
Once the server is installed, now you get to put it into action. After logging in, you can create some users, and start setting up you backoffice environment.
The calendar can be displayed by day, weekview without weekend, weekview with weekend, planner by category, planner by user, or by activity list. If you want you can also add custom fields to the calendar. And most importantly, when you enter an activity, you can choose which users, by user or group, can view the activity.
The next most-used feature for me in Egroupware is the address book. Like the calendar you can query by group or category, and can also set the user access permissions for other users to any of your contacts.
One of the features that is especially useful is that the calendar and contacts can be synced to several support applications and devices. The information can be synced with Outlook, Evolution, Kontact or other message programs, and can also be synced with several PIMs. A list of the supported applications and devices is shown on eGroupware’s website.
The other feature that I use on a regular basis is the Document Management Server, myDMS. For me, it is a great place to store and organize all types of templates, and versions of documents. In addition to organizing documents in logical categories, you can also set user access permissions individually for any single, or group of documents.
In addition to these features, there is also an included project manager, resource manager (useful for conference rooms, etc), timesheet, and file manager. While I, admittedly, do not use these features on a regular basis, from what I have seen, they appear to be just as useful as the modules that I outlined above.

Support
In my case, any technical issue that I ran into was easily answered by a quick Google of the issue. If you cannot find it by internet search, then they have mailing lists in seven different languages, including one specifically for users of Windows.
For those who are not so inclined to read answers in the form of a mailing list digest, then you will need to find a local person who is knowledgeable of LAMP or WAMP servers to assist you with the installation and maintenance of the server.

Conclusion
EGoupware, for my small office, is a solid software project, that provides an open source implementation to share contacts, calendars, files, and other information. I admit that when I have a software need, I look to open source products instead of proprietary programs. I have used Linux for almost ten years, and I am pleased with the available software, the system security, the choices of desktops, and the flexibility of the Product. But, I also understand that Microsoft-based products have their place in the office as well…I’ve been a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer for over 10 years, and spent several years implementing enterprise CRM, work flow, and financial systems. The good news is that the only client requirement is a working browser, and more importantly you get complete control of your data and your security. For a small to mid-sized, efficient, and frugal operation, this open source application might be a perfect fit.

Which distro I use is an ever-evolving question; I’ve been through at least ten different distros since I migrated my workstation permanently to Linux in 2000. These include: Red Hat 8 and 9, Red Hat 10 with Evolution Desktop, Fedora Red Hat, Slackware, Debian, SuSe, Mandrake (now Mandriva), and some other more obscure ones purely out of curiosity. Currently,I use Ubuntu Linux for my desktop and my laptop, and OpenBSD for my file and Internet Server.

Why Ubuntu? Because it is easy to use, easy to install, easy to update, and it is very well documented. I don’t use Fedora Red Hat because the installation, whether by CD or network, always hangs on my system. Same for Mandriva, which, like Fedora, is Red Hat Based. As for Slackware, its a bulletproof distribution, that always installs, but it is not as easy on the eyes nor as easy to configure as Ubuntu.

Ubuntu’s website says it best. “Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. Whether you use it at home, at school or at work Ubuntu contains all the applications you’ll ever need, from word processing and email applications, to web server software and programming tools. Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing.”

When I was testing distros before my last change to Ubuntu, I had a checklist of features that I wanted in the system. It had to be simple to install, had to be well documented, and had to include these packages with the distribution: Evolution, Open Office, Gnumeric, Firefox, and all of the necessary media codecs. Some packages, due to licensing issues, do not distribute certain codecs (coding decoding scripts used to read media files). While you can always manually install the codec, it is very nice to have it included in the system.

Ultimately, I wanted to find a system that even my mother could operate. Ubuntu was it. It is Debian-based, and it has thousands of packages available for it that are easily installed and updated with apt-get; the interface is clean and efficient; and the forum support is fantastic. I have not run into one issue that could not be resolved by a quick Google of the issue. And most of the time, the answer is right there in Ubuntu forums.

Servers are a whole different issue. My requirements for a server are two-fold: that it be secure, and reliable. To this end, I use OpenBSD for my server. It is amazingly secure, and lets you make an old workstation into an incredibly robust and powerful Internet and file server. The OpenBSD website boasts that there have only been two holes found in the default install in the past 10 years!. Windows has that may per day it seems.

Basically the server just runs Apache2, php, and all the other Internet mods, Postfix, Dovecot, Mysql, WebDav, and other basic storage applications that allow me to keep my information localized, but don’t actually have high cpu or memory demands. No, BSD is not Linux, but it is a Unix-based system and operates, from a user standpoint, in very much the same way. And, from the front end, it runs seamlessly with my Linux workstation.

Moving to a Linux environment does have one Achilles heel: the commercial office applications that many of us fund useful, such as accounting software, scanning software, project management and CRMS, do not, by default, work on Linux. Many can be made to run on Wine, an Open Source implementation of the Windows kernel, but often they don’t work perfectly or take up too many systems resources.

So what is the workaround? Compromise, of course.

My work station is comprised of three monitors on two different machines: one on a Windows box, and the other two (one landscape, and one portrait for reading and working on docs) on my Linux workstation. For the M$ Windows box, I bought a mini desktop, bumped up the memory, and use it exclusively for Adobe Acrobat, Navision Financials (I used to work for a Solutions Center when it was still owned by the Dutch), and an annoyingly proprietary, but useful, deposition audio to text synch application. I guess it could also be used for Dragon Naturally Speaking, since it is another application that just doesn’t have a Linux counterpart.

Now for the most simple, but also elegant solution of all: Synergy 2. http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ With synergy, my three screens all work together with the same keyboard and mouse. Additionally, it also allows me to copy and paste from one screen to another. And the best part is, while the Windows machine is crunching through a batch of OCR scans, my main machine has all of its resources available for my real work.

So do I use Linux because I hate Microsoft? No, I’ve been a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer for over 10 years. I use Linux because it is secure, and it works. There will always be a need to know Windows in foreseeable future, but I’d never give up my Linux boxes as my permanent workstation.