Novell unveils open source Evolution 2

Novell announced yesterday that its Connector for Microsoft Exchange Server will be integrated into its forthcoming Evolution 2.0 email and workgroup client for Linux, and made available as open source under the GNU General Public Licence.

Evolution Connector is designed to allow users of Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 and 2003 to manage email, calendars, group schedules, address books, public folders and tasks from Linux desktops linked to Novell's Evolution collaboration suite.

"As companies deploy Linux on the desktop, they must ensure that users of either Windows or Linux can collaborate with each other using existing back-end systems and familiar processes," said Nat Friedman, vice president of the desktop technologies group at Novell.

He added that technologies such as Connector allow Linux desktops to operate inside a mixed proprietary and open source environment, and make choosing a Linux desktop easier for IT administrators.

"With the release of the Connector source code, the entire Evolution product is now available under the GNU General Public Licence, and we are excited that customers are going to see the benefits in Novell's next Linux desktop as well as in future releases of SuSE Linux," said Friedman.

Novell stated that the latest version of Evolution, release 2.0, will be available in the third quarter as part of the company's Linux desktop.

The next version will include built-in spam filtering, Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions and PGP security certificate management, as well as tight integration with the Linux desktop and Gaim instant messaging client.

In addition to support for Microsoft Exchange, Novell said that Evolution 2.0 features integrated support for Novell GroupWise 6.5 for Linux, giving users the ability to use Evolution to access their GroupWise mail, calendars, contacts and global address books.

Other features new to Evolution 2.0 include improved offline support for Internet Message Access Protocol accounts, enhanced calendar functions and better contact management.