TARRYTOWN, N.Y., Aug. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Open-Xchange Inc. announced today the availability of Open-Xchange 5 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Open-Xchange 5 is the industry's first fully supported, modular, platform agnostic open- source collaboration platform.

Open-Xchange enables easy migration and integration to an open source environment - allowing IT administrators to create and implement killer-apps without changing existing infrastructure components, i.e. databases, directory services, message transfer agents, e-mail servers or web-servers. End users can keep their favorite mail and groupware client -- most often Outlook, but also open source clients such as Kontact. Customers can see a demonstration of the new solution at Linux World Expo in San Francisco, beginning August 9 at the Open-Xchange booth number 453.

"By providing a supported Open-Xchange on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, customers now have real platform choices when it comes to deploying enterprise installations -- and this is what customers want: choice," said Frank Hoberg, CEO of Open-Xchange. "It's exciting to be able to offer Open-Xchange on the world's leading Linux platform."

The functionality offered by Open-Xchange Server 5 includes all that is available in the open-source Open-Xchange Server 0.8, with the addition of:

* Significantly enhanced Microsoft Outlook and Palm connectors (compared to SUSE LINUX Openexchange Server predecessor connectors to SLOX): -- Shared folders -- Distribution lists -- Documents attached to specific objects -- Microsoft Outlook categories compatibility -- Synchronization with .pst files -- On-line and off-line functionality * A web interface for administrators * Enhanced web interfaces to set up user preferences * Web-based contextual on-line help for users * Administrator and user manuals * Five years of guaranteed maintenance * Maintenance with update and upgrade protection for server modules and connectors * Standard service and support offerings for installation About Open-Xchange

Open-Xchange Server, the engine behind Novell's award-winning SUSE LINUX Openexchange Server, maintains the same architecture, but with added and enhanced features in a more flexibly designed, platform-agnostic package.

Open-Xchange enables users to store appointments, contacts, tasks, emails, bookmarks, documents -- and many more elements -- and share them with other users. This environment can be accessed via any web browser - as well as multiple fat clients like Outlook, Palm, KDE Kontact, Apple's iCAL, Konqueror, Mozilla Calendar, and more.

Third party products -- open source or proprietary -- can access Open- Xchange through various interfaces such as WebDAV (XML), LDAP, iCal, and HTTP/S. Open-Xchange is based on open source daemons and services: a web (HTTP/S) server (like Apache), a servlet engine (like Tomcat), a database (like PostgreSQL), a directory server (like OpenLDAP), and a mail (both SMTP and IMAP) server (like Postfix using Cyrus); just to list a few.

The administration framework is implemented using XML-RPC (Remote Procedure Calls). Additional XML-based APIs, and support for common open standards such as ICAL, VCARD and VTODO will help developers access the core modules.

Pricing and Availability

Open-Xchange Server 5 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 4 is available immediately at http://www.open-xchange.com/ and through a list of select partners.

Open-Xchange Server 5 Small Business Server Edition (5-25 users) - including one-year maintenance, administration interfaces, initial installation support, Outlook and Palm connectors and a five-year guarantee, is $295 for the first five users. An annual maintenance subscription fee for additional users is $25 per user.

Open-Xchange Server 5 Advanced Server Edition (25+ users) for Red Hat Enterprise Linux - including one-year maintenance, administration interfaces, initial installation support, Outlook and Palm connectors and a five-year guarantee is $850. An annual maintenance subscription fee for additional users is $25 per user.

About Open-Xchange Inc.

Based in Tarrytown, NY, Open-Xchange Inc. (http://www.open-xchange.com/) is the world's leading Linux-based groupware, collaboration, and messaging provider. Open-Xchange's flagship product, Open-Xchange Server, comes in a free open source version, OX 0.8, and a commercial version, Open-Xchange 5.0. Olpe, Germany-based Netline Internet Service has been developing java-based, three-tier web applications since 1996 and continues to be the contract developer of Open-Xchange. Netline also provides the core collaboration engine for SUSE LINUX Open-Xchange Server. Netline is also a licensed reseller of Open-Xchange Inc.

CONTACT: Bill Baker of Baker Communications Group for Open-Xchange, Inc.,
+1-860-350-9100, or wbaker@bakercg.com

Web Site: http://www.open-xchange.com/

• Upgrade from Older Versions of Open-Xchange Available