I use KDE at work for all standard office software like email, calendar, instant messaging etc. Unfortunately, although I use KDE (4.4) as the desktop environment, I find KDE applications not very corporate-friendly. Let me explain:
1. I must connect (as most office environments unfortunately) to Microsoft Exchange 2008 server for email, contacts and calendar. So, far I am able to use Kmail as an IMAP client only. For addressbook, I can create an LDAP source and have Kmail search through it automatically. However, there is no integration for calendar. I have to maintain a local calendar and, of course, there is no publishing capability yet.
2. The company runs MS Office Communicator and there is no support for it in Kopete. As of now, I have to resort to pidgin (which is a fine piece of software) but the whole experience feels incomplete because I do love a lot about Kopete and would prefer to leverage its integration with KDE.
Kopete also seems 'reluctant' when working behind a proxy server (which is probably the default in offices). I have never been able to connect successfully to anything other than yahoo from my office network (yet)!
3. Similarly, MS Office support in KOffice leaves much to be desired -- as compared to OpenOffice. It is not to say I mind using OO.o but software that is integrated into the local DE and uses the same libraries is preferable for look and feel as well as overall memory footprint.

My question is: Is support for Microsoft protocols (I prefer to call them corporate protocols) on the radar for KDE, especially since KDE is fully supported on Windows?
I have read major overhaul of KDEPIM in KDE 4.5 SC but still not sure if MS Exchange support will come in. Also, what about Kopete and better support via proxy (particularly http proxy)? KOffice + MSOffice?

Frankly, the desktop portion of KDE SC is now on par with any other OS/desktop out there. However, there is definitely a need to make it more office/corporate friendly.

Thank you.

1. I would love to know the official answer to this one as well as we run Exchange for e-mail, etc. and it would be nice to use KDE PIM for that if possible. Of course I have no idea what the state of KDE PIM+MS Exchange is as I've never delved that far, yet.
3. Looking at recent release announcements for KOffice (which is developed an maintained separately), they have been working on better support for MS Office formats, so I suspect that things will be getting better with each release (though it will take some time before we see OO.o or better compatibility).

While you can get KDE on Windows that is a totally different story from support for Microsoft protocols in KDE. I do think that it would be good to have such support (especially Exchange, LDAP, Open Directory, etc.) as that will definitely open the doors for the use of KDE in MS-dominant corporate environments.

I think the issue is whether there are programmers prepared to make contributions in these areas. What happens in the KDE Community is more dependent on who is prepared to do/sponsor the work than on any top-down decision making.

Given the situation put forth by the above two replies, it is no wonder that GTK-based applications are ruling the roost in office environments -- OO.o can be ignored because it got into the game very early on.

1. Firefox - Chrome is good but GTK again. Rekonq is what I am most excited about at this stage.
2. Thunderbird/Evolution - Both are way inferior to the Kontact suite even at this stage. Once Kontact + MS Exchange gets going, it will more or less make both of these redundant, at least on KDE.
3. Pidgin - Like pidgin, kopete should support more, what I would call, "real-life" protocols.
4. GIMP - Again, although it came earlier than Krita, I am waiting for Krita to be as snappy as GIMP so I can switch because I also do a lot of image processing.

I had to actually upgrade my work laptop from 2Gb to 4Gb just so I could run all the above GTK-apps in a KDE/Qt environment. It defeats the purpose of KDE4 series improving its memory footprint.

Having said that, following applications are working great for me:
1. KRDC - For remote access, there is nothing quite like it. If, somehow, it encompassed ICA (citrix) client support, it would be a dream to use.
2. Kmail - Much as I miss MS Exchange support, its threads by subject is a killer feature. I never miss any part of an email conversation anymore.
3. Konsole - Ultimate terminal emulator. Period.
4. Digikam - To quickly catalog photos and download them from memory cards, there is nothing quite like digikam!
5. Amarok - Need I explain?
6. K3B - See Amarok above.

My posts are more as feedback from the workplace and how KDE can make serious inroads there.

People in the planning roles for KDE SC must look at this aspect hard.

Nevertheless, I am a faithful KDE user since its 2.0 avatar and will continue to do so, regardless

MS Exchange support hinges on the OpenExchange project, and requires an Akonadi resource, which I do not know the status of at this time. Brad Hards may know more about this.

For KRDC, all that is required is the needed plugin to be written.

@bcooksley: Thanks for your reply. I also read some blog posts on planetkde.org:

1. http://grundleborg.wordpress.com/2010/0 ... n-project/

2. http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/4170

Could be steps in the right direction