OpenChange, KDE bring Exchange compatibility to Linux (Computerworld) [LWN.net]

Computerworld reports on a speech by KDE and OpenChange developer Brad Hards at linux.conf.au. "'In my workplace -- a major government department that shall remain nameless -- the main dependency on Outlook and Exchange is not mail, but seeing other people's calendars and making shared appointments. You can't get appointments with some people unless you send them invitations.' [...] OpenChange has client and server-side libraries for Exchange integration and relies heavily on code developed for Samba 4. It is open source software licenced under the GPL version 3. "

(Log in to post comments)

OpenChange, KDE bring Exchange compatibility to Linux (Computerworld)

Posted Feb 3, 2009 15:30 UTC (Tue) by ber (subscriber, #2142) [Link]

MAPI/RPC implementations as Free Software certainly add another option, which is good. It should be noted that Free Software can already be used to run a mixed environment and enable a smooth transition. Kolab Groupware does so for many years now. (Full disclosure: I am the coordinator of the Kolab development.) The idea is to hook up with Outlook and have it write out good data. So you can use other Kolab Clients on the same calender or contacts folders. For Outlook there are three vendors offering a Kolab compatible plugin, but they are all proprietary.

In the mid run, it would be cool to win people over to Free Software and standard protocols. Kontact on Windows is a chance to replace Outlook in the future.