One of the biggest problems for companies looking to move to a
Linux-based server and/or workstations, yet still retain some Windows
workstations or desktops across the company is the perceived lack of integration.
Some of this lack has obviously been rectified; for instance, the use of OpenOffice.org
rather than Microsoft Office. One problem that Ximian aimed to solve not so
long ago was the reliance on Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. The collaboration
provided by Exchange with items such as contacts, calendars, and tasks are
often essential to Outlook users. Few solutions existed that integrated well
with Outlook.
A new solution is now available called Open-Xchange. Open-Xchange
is a server solution that provides most of the same features of Exchange in the
open source free version, and adds support for plugins to extend functionality
(called OXtenders)
that even provide support for Outlook and Palm syncing.
Open-Xchange provides a number of groupware features that any
organization would appreciate: shared calendars, contacts, tasks, and projects.
For many, these features would be sufficient but for those organizations that
require Outlook features, for whatever reason, the commercial version of
Open-Xchange helps bridge the gap allowing you to finally free yourself of MS
Exchange.
An evaluation version of Open-Xchange, and more information on
the product itself, can be found at http://www.open-xchange.com/.