Linux Collaboration: All About The Apps

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For years, pundits have proclaimed that the Linux Desktop is coming, and yet
it was still lacking in some of the critical collaboration apps that
enterprises rely on.

Some have argued that without key collaboration
applications that can interface with Microsoft’s Exchange, enterprises won’t
adopt Linux.

That’s going to change this year.

Collaboration applications, old and new, are coming to Linux desktops and
servers en masse.

Among the vendors lining up to the
Linux and open source trough are IBM, Zimbra, Scalix and OpenXchange. The
offerings may well also help to dissuade some from using proprietary
alternatives, such as Microsoft’s Exchange.

Zimbra is announcing version 4.0 of its collaboration suite (ZCS), which
includes e-mail, calendar and content-sharing features.

Version 3.0 came out earlier this year following a period in which
Zimbra was in stealth mode, according to CTO Scott Dietzen.

ZCS 4.0 is actually going to be what Zimbra had originally
begun as ZCS 3.2, which is currently in beta 2, but has decided to renumber
the development due to the number of enhancements in the product.

Among
those enhancements is Zimbra’s implementation of the ALE –- Ajax Linking and Embedding specification that it pioneered.

ALE is to AJAX what OLE
(Object Linking and Embedding) (define) is to Microsoft Windows.

With the Zimbra Documents feature in ZCS 4.0 users can take advantage of ALE
to embed, share, edit and publish content inside of a browser interface.

ZCS 4.0 will also include Zimbra Mobile, which will provide over-the-air
synchronization for various mobile devices, including those from Symbian,
Palm, Windows Mobile, Nokia, Motorola and Samsung.

Scalix is also announcing Scalix version 11, the new version of its collaboration platform. As with ZCS 4.0, the solution now includes a mobile
component.

Scalix Web Access Mobile provides users with mailbox access via
their PDAs or cell phones.

The new version also includes enhanced management
capabilities and improvements to Scalix’s support for Microsoft Outlook.
Scalix roots lie in HP’s OpenMail source code, which Scalix owns.

Open-Xchange for its part has announced that it is now available as a SpikeSource Certified Solution.

The SpikeSource offering aims to provide users with
an easier approach to integration and support.

And then there’s IBM.

In July, Big Blue announced that after years of customer requests, it was finally
going to provide Lotus Notes for the Linux desktop.

IBM is now following up that initiative by making Lotus Sametime 7.5 available on Linux.

The company will not be rolling out support for Sametime on the Linux desktop and on Linux servers at the same time, though. The desktop client is expected later this summer, and the server is expected in early 2007.

This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.