[Kroupware] PR:

[Bernhard Reiter]

[ for immediate release ]   URL: http://kroupware.org/news/pr-20030725.html

July 25th, 2003, Osnabrück

  Kroupware Project finished -- Kolab emerges

  Goals reached for German Kroupware project 
  with Kolab Server and KDE Kolab Client stable releases.


The three companies behind the Kroupware Project 
(Erfrakon, Intevation and Klarälvdalens Datakonsult)
announced its successful completion today.
This new groupware approach using only Free Software 
is now available in stable versions under the Kolab brand name.
Commercial support on an individual basis is already offered
with further support options to come.

The Kolab system offers common asynchronous groupware functions
such as E-Mail, Group Calendaring, Notes and Tasks.
Stable releases of the software can be downloaded from the website [1].

Kolab Server 1.0 is designed to be very scalable 
benefitting from already matured Free Software components
like Cyrus IMAPd, Postfix, Apache and OpenLDAP.
"Our design is completely based on open standards and compatibility",
says Martin Konold, whose company Erfrakon developed the Kolab architecture.
"This is why we can even interact with Outlook, using the iCalender
formats to invite people crossplatform and exchange contacts using
vCard files." Security aspects have been included from the beginning.
Thus, the whole communication between the server and the clients 
is done via encrypted connections.

The KDE Kolab Client in version 1.0.1 draws upon the corresponding
KDE components KMail, KOrganizer, KAddressbook and KPilot.
These parts have been integrated to talk with the server.
In addition the client has been made fully offline capable.
Klarälvdalens Datakonsult AB, the company of 
Kalle Dalheimer employing many distinguished KDE developers
performed the necessary work on the client side.
"We closely cooperated with the KDE community," adds Klarälvdalens'
Lead developer Bo Thorsen, "the high quality of GUI components
maintained by the community made it possible for us to 
assemble a feature-rich groupware client in such a short timeframe."

"Kolab has undergone a significant period of testing and bugfixing
in the last month", explains Bernhard Reiter, managing director
of Intevation and responsible project manager. "We now believe 
that it has reached a stable state and will make Free Software
much more attractive for the office desktop."

The Kroupware project has been started in september 2002
after the three companies won a contract 
to set up a quality in-house groupware solution
for the German "Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik"
(Federal Agency for IT Security, BSI).

Apart from www.kroupware.org which documents the project
itself, there is an emerging community around the Kolab approach 
which organises itself over the mailinglists
and the kolab.kroupware.org website.

[1] www.kroupware.org
[2] kolab.kroupware.org

About the companies:

	Erfrakon is a consulting company 
	dedicated to Free Software and GNU/Linux servers.
	A speciality is support for high availability servers and clusters.
	
	www.erfrakon.com


	Intevation GmbH is an IT-company exclusively focusing on Free Software.
	Its business units are strategic consulting, project management 
	and geographic information systems. 
	
	www.intevation.net


	Klarälvdalens Datakonsult AB is offering professional services,
	support and cross-platform development with the Qt library and KDE.
	
	www.klaralvdalens-datakonsult.se

About KDE:

	KDE is the network transparent award winning desktop environment 
	for GNU/Linux or other unix-like operating systems.
	It combines ease of use, functionality, and outstanding 
	graphical design to bring a complete Free Software 
	based workplace to users worldwide.
	KDE itself is available in more than 50 languages
	and the development is done in the open 
	coordinated over the Internet.

	www.kde.org

Press Contact
	Bernhard Reiter <bernhard.reiter at intevation.de>
	Phone: ++ 49  541 33 508 33

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