Lync Alternative

Openfire. However because it uses XMPP it doesn't work as well as lync from two locations. For example with lync you could have a laptop and desktop and log them in at the same time and get the messages both places. Openfire doesn't do that.

Sparkum

Sorry guys,

My bad, actually looking for the client side software.

@scottalanmiller said:

@Sparkum said:

@mlnews

Will Openfire show you offline when you lock your computer?

It will show that you are idle, not sure about the connection to locking.

It does Idle unless the computer goes to sleep then it may go offline though I think it just does away the same as lync.

scottalanmiller

@thecreativeone91 said:

Openfire. However because it uses XMPP it doesn't work as well as lync from two locations. For example with lync you could have a laptop and desktop and log them in at the same time and get the messages both places. Openfire doesn't do that.

Actually, I found that Lync didn't do that either. Completely unreliable.

@scottalanmiller said:

@thecreativeone91 said:

Openfire. However because it uses XMPP it doesn't work as well as lync from two locations. For example with lync you could have a laptop and desktop and log them in at the same time and get the messages both places. Openfire doesn't do that.

Actually, I found that Lync didn't do that either. Completely unreliable.

It worked fine in my environments.

@Sparkum said:

Sorry guys,

My bad, actually looking for the client side software.

Spark is the client for Openfire. Though it's quite dated.

scottalanmiller

That's the thing about Lync. Works sometimes, but not reliably. So lots of people have stories of it working. But you never know if it will work for you. Even Microsoft can't get it working and dropped it.

badjesus

Lync worked perfectly for us on 0365 when locking the computer, it would show as away. This is the only feature end users are really wanting to keep. We have an existing XMPP server that we can use (through smartermail) so it is mostly just the client that we need. A clients with a good user friendly UI that will show as away when screen is locked.

scottalanmiller

@thecreativeone91 said:

@Sparkum said:

Sorry guys,

My bad, actually looking for the client side software.

Spark is the client for Openfire. Though it's quite dated.

There are several options. Spark runs on Java so a lot of people have moved away from it. Java on the desktop? Really IgniteRealtime?

For SSO both the server and the client have to support it. You might look at PSI http://psi-im.org/ not sure if it supports SSO though.

tonyshowoff

@scottalanmiller The Spark Client, a hunk of dog crap, doesn't do that or much of anything, but the great news is one can use any Jabber client out there. We mostly use Pidgin 'round here, and you can set the idle time fairly low and there may be a plugin for that, I don't know, or some other Jabber client.

@tonyshowoff said:

@scottalanmiller The Spark Client, a hung of dog crap, doesn't do that or much of anything, but the great news is one can use any Jabber client out there. We mostly use Pidgin 'round here.

Which is sad. because it's the most controllable from open fire. Not sure why they don't replace it with a native app.

scottalanmiller

@badjesus said:

We have an existing XMPP server that we can use (through smartermail) so it is mostly just the client that we need. A clients with a good user friendly UI that will show as away when screen is locked.

Ah, well you can use any. It's the client that would do the triggering. Pigeon is what we tended to use towards the end.

tonyshowoff

Open Fire is fairly easy to setup, though things like LDAP and MySQL can be confusing for novices to that kind of thing, since in general Java makes dealing with those things about as easy as walking on a bunch of marbles. I do like its ability to force users to have the same contact list and so on, though.