At OSU they have this nifty web mail program. I had been using it for most of my first term (Fall 2003) assuming that it was a commercial product or custom software written by OSU. Well, to my surpise, I discovered OSU uses Horde, an open-source, LGPL project! After discovering this, reading good stuff on the web about Horde, and hearing good stuff about Horde from my dad, I decided it would be worth installing for my web mail app on my server.
Using Horde is a switch for me since I have only used squirrelmail before. Squirrelmail is OK, but I have had a number of problems with it and response from the development team about critical bugs has been lethargic. However, my experince with Horde has been great so far! And, Horde is more than just a web mail client. There are lots of modules being developed that integrate into the Horde framework.
Installation was a little involved, but the "INSTALL" docs are very good. You do need to understand PHP and how to use MySQL or PostgreSQL, and you need to know how to connect to an IMAP server if you want to use IMP. Although, you probably want to run your own IMAP server. See my entry on Courier IMAP.
All-in-all, I'm quite impressed. Horde works very well, has a great interface, and is being actively developed. I look forward to using it and watching it grow.
Posted by enigma at January 8, 2004 10:34 PM