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Linux and Open Source

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols & Paula Rooney

Red Hat's Fedora 11 to offer interop with Microsoft Exchange

By | June 2, 2009, 1:13pm PDT

Red Hat is not going to let the Microsoft-Novell partnership dim its own prospects for interoperability.

That seems to be the case with the Red Hat-sponsored open source Fedora project, which plans to release on June 9 a major upgrade of its free Linux that offers robust integration with Microsoft Exchange via a new feature called OpenChange. 

According to a blog posted about the upcoming Fedora 11 release, code named “Leonidas,” OpenChange is the first open source implementation of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI).  The interoperability with Exchange is also enbaled by incorporation of some portions of the next generation Samba 4 platform. 

It’s a pretty big deal, and here’s why:

“The OpenChange implementation provides a client-side library which can be used in existing messaging clients to offer native compatibility with Exchange,” according to a Red Hat blog recently posted on the company web site. “Using the “libmapi” library, OpenChange allows clients such as Thunderbird, Evolution, KMail, and other open source applications to utilize the full range of MAPI functionality including messaging, shared calendars, contact databases, public folders, notes and tasks.”

Fedora 11 offers a host of other new significant features including support for the Ext4 file system by default.  To see complete list, go to fedoraproject.org.

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Topics

Paula Rooney is a Boston-based writer who has followed the tech industry for almost two decades.

Disclosure

Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney owns no stock in the companies that she covers. She holds a 401K that is managed by Morgan Stanley.

Biography

Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney has covered the software and technology industry for more than 20 years, starting with semiconductor design and mini-computer systems at EDN News and later focused on PC software companies including Microsoft, Lotus, Oracle, Red Hat, Novell and other open source and commercial software companies for CRN and PCWeek. She received a silver award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors in 2005 for her profile on Linus Torvalds and edited and co-authored "Partnering With Microsoft," a book about Microsoft's channel published by CMP Publishing in 2004. Rooney graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1997. In her off time, she enjoys scuba diving, sailing, sun worshipping, running, reading, surfing (the net) and hanging out with her family. She resides on the shores of Scituate, Massachusetts.

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Fedora 11 is available if you want it
SoYouSaid 5th Jun 2009
I've been running in now for a month or so and havn't had a problem yet. I use a dual monitor set up and it boots right into it, not like Ubuntu 9.10 where you have reset it each time after you boot up.

http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=05452
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Fedora makes me uncomfortable
pjotr123 2nd Jun 2009
Looks great, innovates like greased lightning, but I don't trust the attitude of the developers. Being on the bleeding edge of innovation all the time, leaves the end users with an operating system that they can't rely on.

Weird bugs popping up, sometimes after updates.... a bit more respect for the peace of mind of their end users would do the Fedora developers no harm. Even if that would mean a slower pace in innovation.
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When they have appeared and never had any issues runing Fedora. And when 11 is released, I will upgrade from my current version 10.

Every version I have run has been very reliable. No crashes, no unexplained shutdowns, no problems.

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Fedora 11 is available if you want it
SoYouSaid 5th Jun 2009
I've been running in now for a month or so and havn't had a problem yet. I use a dual monitor set up and it boots right into it, not like Ubuntu 9.10 where you have reset it each time after you boot up.

http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=05452
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They just need to be realistic.
storm14k 3rd Jun 2009
I applaud them for being cutting edge but they need to be realistic bout their project. If you say Fedora is not really for the desktop user but for the developer or techie they get mad. But thats the truth.
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Who's "they"?
NetArch. 3rd Jun 2009
Red Hat will tell you that Fedora is not for the enterprise - it's both a showcase for leading/bleeding edge technology and an indicator of where Red Hat is going with RHEL. Even the most ardent Linux fan has to acknowledge that Fedora is not for enterprise-wide desktop use. Development, testing, user trials - yes. Non-critical servers - yes. But bet-your-stock-options-and-401(k)-on? No way. And that's from a huge Fedora fan (me!).

Red Hat will tell you that for enterprise use, Fedora is not the tool to use. If you have a savvy IT department with people who know their stuff (not paper MSCEs, for example), then fine - you probably don't need hand holding. But the majority of large enterprises don't have that kind of expertise and need traditional support.

It's the same with Novell and their SuSE product line & OpenSuSE, and Canonical with Ubuntu and Ubuntu LTS. Different products for different needs.
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Fedora is meant as a....
visualambrosia 4th Jun 2009
Fedora is NOT meant as a rock-solid stable OS. It is meant to be cutting edge, and showcase new OS technologies from Red Hat.
I would not deploy it to end users at a company, but I would run it on my personal machine since I am a tech-head and love the new innovations that it brings to the table.

Also, I love how Red Hat is pushing for the open standard in software.
Is this particular to Redhat? My understanding is that OpenChange is being implemented by Gnome Evolution and KDE Akonadi. (It would be nice if the Mozilla Messaging also supported it.) I think OpenChange is already available in some form on OpenSuse, SLED and maybe other recent Linux distro releases and will be available on others soon.

And, yes, it is a big deal, a bigger deal than just Exchange. The European Commission forced Microsoft to cough up the details of all their server protocols. Microsoft are of course doing it to "foster innovation and interoperability". Ha, ha!
http://www.microsoft.com/protocols/default.mspx


M$ exchange has been at the bottom of the cesspool of holes & other security vulnerabilities for a long time now. Not surprising that someone ELSE would have to clean it up - I just never though any LINUX org. would "polish a turd"!!!!
I have been running Fedora as my desktop for more than 2 years.

By running the released version, and not the rawhide experimental versions, I have found the experience to be quite stable with both Fedora 9 and 10.

I am looking forward to Fedora 11 continuing the tradition.

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