Red Hat's Fedora taps Zafara open source groupware for 13
Red Hat’s selection of Zafara as an open source groupware component in Fedora 13 is very interesting. Zafara, the beta of Fedora 13 code named “Goddard,” was made available on April 13. The final version is expected in mid May.
The Linux leader has toyed with the idea of integrating email and
calendaring capabilities into its Linux stack from time to time. Novell,
of course, promotes its own GroupWise but also endorses other open
source offerings for its Linux distribution.
Customers and integrators have often turned to leading open source
groupware offerings such as SendMail, OpenXChange, Scalix and Zimbra or
proprietary solutions to fill their collaboration requirements.
Safara appears to be an interesting alternative, provided that its
compatibility claims are solid. Zafara is based in the Netherlands and
Hannover, Germany and its Linux solution is said to be 100 percent
compatible with Microsoft Exchange environments.
According to the European company, Zafara integrates with Linux mail
servers, and provides a Microsoft Outlook look-and-feel web access
capability, as well as reliable sharing with Outlook email via its 100
percent support for MAPI.
Another major differentiator is its support for native mobile phones,
the Z-Push open source project and Active sync compatibility. Z-Push, of
course, provides real time push e-mail support.
Zafara then offers support for Windows Mobile based devices, Apple
iPhone, Nokia E-series, Palm Treo 650, 680, 700, Sony Ericsson P990,
W950, M600 and Android. Android support is offered through a tool known
as Touchdown. It also offers native support for Blackberry Enterprise
Server.
Here’s what Red Hat had to say about Zafara in Fedora 13:
“During its development cycle, Fedora 13 also featured for the first
time an installable package of Zarafa, a drop-in groupware replacement
for Exchange with full featured email, calendaring, and other
collaboration tools for use by both Linux and Microsoft clients. A
highly usable, comfortable, and familiar Web interface for users, and
support for POP/IMAP and other protocols are included, along with tools
for integration with existing Linux services.”
