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Novell To Release Ximian Connector Under GPL
ashmodai9 writes "According to this article on LinuxToday.com as well as this press release directly from their site, Novell announced that its "Connector for MS Exchange Server would be integrated into Evolution 2.0 and made available as open source, beginning today with the current Connector 1.4." Apparently, downloads will be available for the current version of Evolution starting May 14th."
Thanks to reader crafterm, a snippet from Novell's Connector website: "With the Connector for Microsoft Exchange installed, Evolution functions as an Exchange client, enabling users to become full participants in company-wide group scheduling and other collaborative tasks. Linux and Solaris users can access public folders, Global Address Lists, email, calendar, task lists, and group scheduling information." Update: 05/11 17:58 GMT by T :
In related news, ChiralSoftware writes "Codeweavers' long-awaited sequel to Crossover 2.1 is here. Just like the old version, the new version lets you install MS Office on Linux desktops. The new version adds support for Outlook XP, Lotus Notes and Microsoft Project."
But what does this have to do with Apache?
Download the source now!
Another reason for not switching - the need to access an Exchange server - bites the dust.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
This is great news! I put in a request a couple of months ago to have this purchased, and I just cancelled that request. It's nice to have one fewer barrier to acceptance.
Now I just have to convince our NT admin staff to turn on Outlook Web Access...
I always wondered if custom contacts forms would work.
And what about categories? In Windows you have to add them to the registry - there is no such thing in Linux.
That's great news - and for those wondering why Novell would release this open source, whereas they could sell it for cash before: Remember, Novell is not primarily selling software but services. They hope to sell more services by freeing the Connector.
This is great. A couple developers here at work are trying to get Linux for their workstations. Hooking into Exchange was always a set back. IT did not want to pay for the connector, since it already paid for Outlook.
This is just one less hurdle to overcome. I aplaud Novel's decision.
Compatibility with Exchange is wonderful, seriously.
The promise of exchange - integrated email & calendaring, locks a lot of companies in to MS software.
Say what you will, the ability for a clueless end-user to click "accept" on an email and automatically schedule themselves for a meeting is a Big Deal(tm).
Now, if only we had something affordable that could do that on the Linux server side, with clients on Linux, Windows and Mac platforms...and no, webmail doesn't cut it...
Is there anyone working on this?
-Steve
Okay, you have your connector for MS Exchange right there in the main app now. NOW what's stopping you from seriously considering OSS as a possibility? And, I'm not talking about the 1.2% of the population that needs some bizarre, esoteric feature in Outlook or Word or whatever that 98.8% of the rest of the population didn't even know exists.
Seriously, folks. Linux ain't ready for the home desktop market, but it's high time more people start considering its viability for the desktop in the workplace, especially as lightweight replacements for Wintops that don't do all that much more than word processing and scheduling.
Take most of that money you've been blowing on MCSEs and A/V software, and pay a few competent *nix admins to come in and properly set up the systems, and you just may well alleviate some, or most, of that downtime. How much TCO did YOUR company have to add to Windows from Sasser, anyway?
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
Stevie-baby, here is your chance to get Mac OS X into the Enterprise! One of the major problems with integrating Macs in most large scale companies is the Exchange Mail Systems in use. In the past, most Mac OS X users had to load up classic to use the G-d awful Outlook client. The new Office 2004 Entourage client is still not as cool as Stickies, Mail, iCal and Address Book working as a team and the best part, those are built into the OS -- as the connector should be.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
I'm a full-time desktop Linux user, and not just for coding, but for every aspect of business, so all this stuff matters to me. This week is going to be a great week in Desktop Linux: Suse 9.1 and Crossover 3 are both coming out at about the same time, and both are huge improvements over what came before.
-------
WAP news
Novell, you seriously rock. I know you're doing this for business reasons, but you just bought a lood of goodwill from a bunch of folks in IT departments. Thank you!
OT harp: Now, if KMail would just add IMAP filtering... ;-)
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Novell has in public beta a GroupWise client for Linux and Mac OS X...and then they give away a connector to make a free client talk to the enemy's mail/calendaring system?
Makes me glad I don't have Novell stock. GroupWise earns them money. This does what?
I'd just like to throw that in. I've been waiting for ages and now it's actually possible.
I can actually use my Linux box at work, without relying on my Windows box.
In my particular company, we use Exchange. While I *have* been able to get IE working with Wine, I haven't had any luck with Outlook at all - I need it for its calendar, which everyone else uses. With Evolution plus the connector, I can now throw away my old dusty NT box for good!
We've needed this for a long time, and I am very grateful for this.
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
When Evolution 2.0 is released, it will have native support to connect to Novell GroupWise servers. Most likely, Novell plans to use Evolution as a vehicle for corporate adoption of GroupWise. Furthermore, since Connector is now free, corporations who currently run Outlook have an easy migration path to GroupWise because they can now install both servers, and access them freely with the same client. Once the bugs are worked out, they can discard Outlook and stick with GroupWise.
Also this might be of interest
You could write the server-side of the protocol this client expects for instance. That should not be too hard.
Specially if you use something like Mono (plug, plug, plug, plug).
Love,
Miguel
Wow.
This is THE single big reason to NOT switch away from Windows in Office Automation. THE. Wow.
I cannot believe, there are not 10.000 alarm bells ringing in redmond right now.
Notice the tarball already avail in source?
Notice how SOON it will be officially? This looks like a planned hit and run to me.
Prediction: Either MS treatens them and they pull it. But the source is out so -pbbbt-. Or expect the next big free software suit to arrive. And it will be pulled, but the source is out so -pbbbt-
If, on the other hand, MS plays nice about this, well, hell just froze over again.
"/Dread"
The big picture for commercial distros a couple years back was:
With RedHat going Fedora (and resigning its mindshare), it wasn't clear what the new scenario sould be. Mandrake was in my mind the great candidate to be the king of the overall distro (from freelading and home users through enterprise solutions), assuming they released more stable corporate versions.
Mandrake did its homework, and they announced a new development strategy with a community release and a later, more stable official release. They probably should add a slower (once a year) corporate option
But now Novell buys SUSE, opens it up and kicks the hell out of the Chess board. RedHat backs up and announces their (late) return to the desktop. Things are getting hot my friends :-)
Now, they only need to release a Windows port of Evolution and even more people will be able to enjoy this awesome program.
Virtual folders have been in Evolution forever. I have the same thing set up in Evolution and was shocked when I installed Outlook 2003 and they had it too. I think the interface is BUSY though. I hate the bars that break stuff out by date... it is distracting. The other stuff is interesting (but I have it in Evolution).
I don't know everything that the connector adds, but I am glad to get it... hopefully soon.
This isn't to say that Evolution doesn't have its rough edges. It DOES... but it is amazing for how relatively young it is. I have been using Outlook for years and it only recently got to be very usable. Evolution is a lot further in a shorter amount of time (love the RSS feed aggregator that is built in).
I don't consider myself clueless and it's a Big Deal(tm) for me.
I don't get paid for managing my calendar and I don't want to waste my time managing my calendar. If someone or something will do it for me or make my life easier, then all the better.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
You could write the server-side of the protocol this client expects for instance. That should not be too hard.
Sounds doable. I'm a developer on the Citadel project, which has an open source groupware server. Now that the Connector is open source, we might give some serious consideration towards implementing the required WebDAV API in our web service.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
So, if you really want to support Novell becuase of its very positive actions of late, here's the way:
BUY something from SuSE, Ximian or Novell!
Ok, this is fantastic news. I'll be taking my work laptop and switching over to linux as my primary OS by the end of the week. (And yes, I realize I'm lucky to have an IT dept that will still support me after I do such a thing.) I'm not a zealot about such things; imho Outlook and IE genuinely suck on their own functional/security merits. The only thing I'll miss from a windows client perspective is Visio (yeah, I think MS does make/maintain some good products), but then there's always VMware.
BUT here's the obvious question: When will there be a viable challenger to Exchange Server? Am I missing something big? Last time I looked, most of the messaging solutions were missing a decent calendaring/schedule solution. Oracle's Collaboration Server is so involved/overkill (9cds for a basic install, iirc) that it's out of reach for most small/med orgs, and makes Notes look svelte. Groupwise was pretty obtuse & closed when I last looked. Open Groupware looks interesting (especially with the knoppix-ogo distro), but feels like Openoffice build 635... i.e. not fully baked.
When is a project going to come up with messaging, calendaring (via ical, mapi, etc etc), a repository that isn't as horrid as exchange public folders (maybe something modeled after/improving upon Opentext's Livelink), flexible event notifications (maybe simple stuff like alerts via email/SMS???). I have hopes for IBM's recent office tools announcement, but we'll see. A turnaround for Groupwise? Maybe? Options, I want options, dammit!
-Jon
I think not...(*poof*)
Is Novell turning out to be a good open source neighbor, or what? I think there is finally a large commercial corporation that "gets it!"
About time.
How long till they open source NetWare and eDirectory?
Another good news for Linux in the Enterprise came from CodeWeaver's CrossOver Office 3.0. It now supports Lotus Notes 6.5.1 on Linux.
/ change_log/
CodeWeaver is happy to announce that today we have shipped version 3.0 of CrossOver Office.
We've added new, official, support for Outlook XP, Microsoft Project, and Notes 6.5.1. Unofficially, we're excited by users comments that far more applications are working now. These include programs like Framemaker and Microsoft Money. You can see the full list of changes here:
http://www.codeweavers.com/site/products/cxoffice
Further, this version marks some fairly ubstantial changes in our CrossOver Product line. First, we have merged the CrossOver Plugin product into the CrossOver Office product offering, so now all non server versions of CrossOver automatically provide
the Plugin functionality.
For a basic office computer, there is now no excuse for IT to not use Linux, unless there is a specific Windows-only app that is needed.
Linux has any terminal you ever needed, OO.org, and now is fully Exchange-server compatable?
And it's all free?
The only thing that could possibly make your Linux TCO high now is perhaps re-training your tech staff who have undoubtedly been brought up on MS Windows if they went to college in the US, and that's not terribly expensive in the long run...
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
I see quite a few comments about "Now I am going to switch to Linux" or "I have been waiting for this for so long" and I got to thinking. What stopped you from using prior to this? It was available for download for ~30 dollars. I purchased it not only for its functionality but to support a Linux company.
I wonder if thunderbird will be able to integrate the connector into their code?
Some of us are still forced to use windows at the workplace for other reasons (Visio a big one), but would love to have an open win32 email client that can connect to exchange for calendaring reasons.
...a new Exchange license designed to make this unattractive.
Please donate your spare CPU cycles to help fight cancer and other diseases
Not only that, but there may be something else to consider.
;)
1) OpenOffice.org is available for several platforms.
2) Ximian is working on putting Evolution integration into OpenOffice.org.
3) Ximian is porting Evolution 2.0 to Windows.
4) ???
4) I think that "Profit!" fits in here somewhere.
Nevertheless, it may be a very good strategy to begin to pull away the strict dependance upon MS Office and Outlook/Exchange. Microsoft still charges Exchange server "seat licenses", but this is just one small step that may very well make a significant impact, especially when MS Office itself is taken out of the equation, and can be replaced with OO.o and Evolution.
Novell is getting to be pretty crafty. Maybe we need to give them a bit more credit?
If you work for a company that would actually spend money on it, DO IT! We should financially support F/OSS companies when we are able to.
Also, remember you'll likely be buying some support which is cheaper than going it alone.
Specifically, Connector only works if Outlook Web Access is enabled on Exchange. There are a few problems with this approach in the real world.
First, OWA isn't enabled by default in Exchange. That is because, secondly, OWA costs extra for each user. Third, as a result, all places I've worked that used Exchange either disallowed using OWA at all or severly limited its use.
For instance, at my current company, OWA is enabled but only has a few client licenses and is therefore blocked from all internal IPs. It's intended use is for people that are traveling that want to access their email via a web browser.
So, yeah, Connector is very slick and very useful... just not as slick and as useful as the euphoric posts here seem to indicate!
Okay, I'm running gentoo and just built this from source. A couple of things:
./configure (probably should be the same one with which Evolution was built).
Be sure to specify the proper --prefix= to
A few things failed to link. This was solved by adding "-lresolve -lldap" to the proper _LIBS= line in the Makefiles. I only had to do that a couple times.
So, I have it installed and Evolution finds it. It seems to be hung up right now trying to connect to the Exchange server, but at least I got it installed.
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 -- Mathematics is the Language of Nature.
But I Currently have the opposite problem and have yet to find a solution.
I am looking to replace an exchange5.5 with something a little more controllable. Cost is an issue and I have around 50 clients. webmail a must. Currently, we are evaluating and will probably go with SUSE Openexchange.
But, here's the problem:
We also want to replace the outlook clients and I would love to switch to evolution. But, I cannot switch the clients off win2000 because of some propriatary programs that need to run.
The goal here is to be MS free within the next year. And, with the exception of some programs we are currently porting, If I can get the users off outlook I can switch them from 2000 to Linux or BSD and very few would notice the difference.
It took us 3 months to ween the users from MSOffice to Oo with very little complaints/training.
Any thoughts?
TIME is the Aether...