KDE working on MS Exchange support on Linux

KDE working on MS Exchange support on Linux

OpenChange and KDE developer Brad Hards has announced that one of the major goals of the OpenChange project is to implement the Microsoft Exchange protocols as used by Outlook.

They are developing it to use the Exchange MAPI/RPC protocol.

He said: “We’re working with the Microsoft Exchange protocols and work it mostly does. Mail is easy the stuff, what is hard is the address book, calendar, free-busy lists, and notes. These are a big deal in the enterprise. In my workplace — a major government department that shall remain nameless — the main dependency on Outlook and Exchange is not mail, but seeing other people’s calendars and making shared appointments. You can’t get appointments with some people unless you send them invitations.”

He added that in around a year’s time the thing should be ready for prime time.

However, there are some issues. Hards said: “It was originally done off wire catches, but now we almost always code off documentation. Some stuff is ugly to deal with, but we do it. I would not be doing demos that showed real implementations without documentation.”

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