I’ve got a lot of practical experience with Netware 4/5/6 and Groupwise 5.2/5.5/6 as well as with most of MS’s server-side software. Unless there is a reason for avoiding MS software (avoiding product activation would be a valid reason) I’d say go for the MS product. All of the commentary below assumes you’re just going to use the basic file-and-print services and email.
Win2k3 Server is a much better operating system than Netware 6. It’s got better stability when apps crash (NW doesn’t have true protected memory) and is friendlier to the n00b with wizards and a functional console GUI. For your purposes, NDS and AD are the same, it’s just that the NDS management app is Java-based and slow as all hell. Both will handle file-and-print duties very well.
I haven’t had much practical experience with Exchange, but I’ve been using GroupWise for about 5 years. It’s finally mature enough to recommend with 6.0 and I’m hearing great things about 6.5. 6.0 is rock solid, even if the NetWare it’s running on isn’t (for people about to jump down my throat, read on). My biggest problem with GW isn’t the software itself, it’s the amount of software avilable to extend the product. We’re severely limited for example in the number of server-side anti-spam and anti-virus products we can use. We use a product called GWAVA, which works pretty well, but has a nasty habit of abending every once in a while. This requires us to reboot the email server. We’re working with the company on the issue, but I shouldn’t have to reboot the box because one program fucked up. GW 6.0 itself on the server is rock-stable, moreso than any version of Exchange I’ve heard of. Its only real failing point is its screwy handling of globally available contact names and frequent contacts.
The client is a different story. Put bluntly, it still hasn’t progressed all that much since it was part of WordPerfect. Outlook surpasses it in just about every way in terms of usability. Also, just about every business program available plugs into Outlook in some way. My company at the moment uses GoldMine as a stand-alone program, but it can integrate into Exchange/Outlook. It can’t do a damn thing with GroupWise. Yes, this is a double-edged sword because worms can interface the same way, but with a good anti-virus and network policies in place, you can eliminate most of these problems.
I have nothing but contempt for BorderManager. If you want a firewall, go with an appliance. A Cisco PIX will cost between $500 and $1500 for a small business. We have a pair of 515s where I work and their only downtime was that blackout this summer. Period. There’s over 10 Mbps pumping through these things constantly.
I can’t say I’ve ever seen SharePoint in action, but GroupWise comes with something similar with their document store feature. Rather than being Web-centric, it’s email-centric. I’ve played around with ZENworks and wasn’t all that impressed. It seemed pretty powerful, but it was very resource-intensive and required a lot of finesse to work as advertised. For < 5 users I don’t think you’ll need it.
Novell has one of the best support sites I’ve ever seen. With MS on the other hand, I sometimes have to search on Google Groups to find the MS KB articles I need.
Hope this mess helps.
