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I would like to see KDE project lead the way in an end-to-end solution to the groupware problem. Plasmoids and desktop effects are nice, but they apparently aren't enough to draw big crowds to Linux.

I was prompted to type out this email after reading this story:
Microsoft Exchange Is MIT’s New Email System (http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N29/webmail.html)

Anankondi does not seem to be attempting to solve the groupware problem. And Microsoft's Windows only solution is one of their better products. KDE seems to have the talent to do this. With Qt gaining Gtk support, KDE may also have the better set of tools to approach the problem as well. Frankly all the other cool stuff could probably wait while this is worked on.

It constantly amazes me how few viable, non web based, group calendar scheduling server/apps there are in the FOSS world. Its like exchange sits in come collective blind-spot.

Take a look at the kolab project however. http://www.kolab.org/ You will see that KDE projects are amoung the few leading the way (and not just providing exchange clients... you know who you are).

It's my unsubstantiated suspicion that most projects start of trying to clone MS Exchange so as to be able to support MS Outlook, then get burn out on trying to understand Exchange. Outlook support should maybe be more of a final feature.

Yes... its born of the desire to provide equal functionality and simple integration with MS dominated work places. But this depends on the the third party being willing to admit new players. Not likely. Kolab's approach of outsourcing the work required to provide an outlook plugin makes more sense from and OSS perspective. However it needs a tangible advantage to make MS users want to adopt it over the native exchange system. That's difficult also. But its the right kind of difficult.

I'm not sure how healthy the project is overall however. I've not heard of it being used much.

Good day! I'm Sarah Perkins from an KPO company in the Philippines. I would just like to know if this software can be of great help in the rapid productivity of outsourcing business. Your response will be appreciated. Thanks!

Most, if not all needed info is available here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... 04(PROT.10).aspx

Might I stress how important such software package would be ? Currently, Microsoft Exchange owns the enterprise segment and it's barely impossible to access it without Microsoft software. I running kde on my job but can only do imap/smtp against the corporate e-mail server. What I lack the most is Active Directory support.

I like the idea for having a groupware solution for KDE, of course I do, but your comment at the end threw me off "Frankly all the other cool stuff could probably wait while this is worked on."

A groupware solution sounds like something companies would have good incentive to work towards getting done, as it would primarily benefit them. Having a bunch of unpaid KDE volunteers feel like it's there job to do this for companies doesnt seem right to me. Let the KDE developers work on what they enjoy working on, kwin effects or whatever, and if companies wish to they can always hire some of those volunteers who would probably love getting paid to develop on linux. Also, akonadi and the kolab project are already doing quite a bit of the heavy lifting.