exchange4linux is a collaborative software

Collaborative software

Collaborative software is computer software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve goals...

 solution that provides email

Email

Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

- and webmail server, common address book, calendar, notes and tasks. It is designed to integrate with Microsoft Office Outlook and third-party tools like PDA-sync or Duplicates Remover for Outlook. It is meant as an alternative to Microsoft Exchange Server

Microsoft Exchange Server

Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...

 or Microsoft Small Business Server

Microsoft Small Business Server

Windows Small Business Server is an integrated server suite from Microsoft designed for running network infrastructure of small and medium enterprises having no more than 75 workstations or users...

.

The product is no longer available for download from the official site. Product support will end in October 2007.

The community-supported open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 project exchange4linux is developed by Neuberger & Hughes GmbH, located in Plochingen, Germany.

exchange4linux server suite 3.x, the commercially supported version of exchange4linux, contains all features in the open source version, a web-based administration frontend, support and software maintenance, optionally with Kaspersky Viruswall and Easy PDF Service.

Technology

exchange4linux provides its groupware functionality by connecting the Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

-based server with Outlook clients. The communication between server and client is based upon free SWAP technology. Simple Workgroup Access Protocol provides handling and availability of groupware information. It can be used to transfer Workgroupdata, design own Webfrontends or connectors for other Workgroup Clients.

Outlook clients can connect securely to the exchange4linux server via VPN or HTTPS

Https

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol with SSL/TLS protocol to provide encrypted communication and secure identification of a network web server...

.

exchange4linux is available as an ISO image

ISO image

An ISO image is an archive file of an optical disc, composed of the data contents of every written sector of an optical disc, including the optical disc file system...

 and as source code

Source code

In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...

.

Features

Groupware functions such as:

• Common Addressbook
• Corporate Calendar
• Notes and Tasks
• Personal Folders / Public Outlook Folders
• Full Offline Folder functionality
• Permissions for every User and Folder configurable
• Meeting invitation and free/busy option
• E-Mail with POP
  Post Office Protocol
  In computing, the Post Office Protocol is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. POP and IMAP are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval. Virtually all modern...
  
   / IMAP or Webmail
• PDA
  Personal digital assistant
  A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
  
   synchronization
• Spamfilter / Spamblocker
• Autoresponder
• Fileserver
• Faxserver (ISDN Faxcard needed)

optional

• Antivirus Service
• Easy PDF Service
• Helpdesk & Support

Current State

On Sep 2006 Neuberger & Hughes GmbH started a cooperation with the former competitor Zarafa

Zarafa (software)

Zarafa is the name of an European open source collaborative software, developed in Delft, the Netherlands. The company that develops Zarafa, previously known as Connectux, is also called Zarafa. The Zarafa groupware provides email storage on the server side and brings its own Ajax-based mail client...

. Support for Exchange4Linux is abandoned and Zarafa is intended to superseded Exchange4Linux.

Neuberger & Hughes GmbH offers a migration from Exchange4Linux to Zarafa.

The official support ended in Oct 2007. The web page was closed after this.

External links

• Open Source Project
• Official Site
• Distribution Germany
• Distribution Benelux