Can I run Omeka without exec()?

Hello,

I am a first time Omeka user, trying to set up an archive of short videos. The feature set of Omeka seems perfect for this project, however I have a very nice small host who does not have exec() enabled in PHP for security reasons, and so I am trying to figure out if I can still use (a crippled) Omeka or if the situation will prove to be unsalvageable.

I have read the forums and dev list content relating to this issue, but what I saw is a year+ old and relates to older versions (I just installed 1.3) so I'm hoping something has changed. Also it is hard to tell what all it effects.

I don't believe I'll need imagemagick for anything, and am content to not have image resizing/thumbnailing automated, but am curious if there are other things that rely on it that I am not yet aware of and if so what?

I am willing to dig around source code if there is a workaround.

Many thanks for any help...

Cheers
-n