Quoting Jeff Clowser <jclowser at unitedmessaging.com>: > It's not that I see caldav creating any kind of relationship between > FDS and Calendar. It's more along the lines that I want to deploy a > FOSS messaging solution around FDS, based on open standards - > something feature wise comparable to Exchange, but using > non-proprietary protocols so that I can pick and choose clients (and > everyone seems to want integrated mail and calendar groupware). That > requires at least a directory server, email server, and calendar > server, implementing SMTP, POP, IMAP, LDAP, and something for > calendar (caldav). The one piece that is missing in the FOSS world > is a true enterprise Calendar server (other than web cals...). I'll put a plug in for a piece of software that might do the trick, depending on your needs. The Horde Project (http://www.horde.org) is an overall framework for web applications. For the most part, the modules developed for it are essentially web-based clients for existing services (for instance IMP is a mature webmail module). It has a calendar module (Kronolith), which moves beyond simply being a web-based calendar client and essentially has elements of being a full-fledged calendar server, at least in development versions. This bug tracks WebDav integration: http://bugs.horde.org/ticket/?id=3032 and there has been thoughts/discussion about CalDAV and GroupDAV. I agree that a FOSS "groupware" solution is much needed, to break the hegemony of the current state of affairs. A calendar server has definitely been the missing link for some time, probably due to a lack of standards. But being able to couple an email server, LDAP server, and calendar server together, to provide non-propietary, open-protocol access to data from any client (fat, web-based, handheld, whatever) opens up a whole new market for FOSS, one that Red Hat has already identified, judging from John's post about a small-business product (the K-12 education market would probably be pretty happy too). Have a preference for one mail server over another? Plug in your preference. Like OpenLDAP over FDS? Use that instead. The point being that control goes back to the user of the software. You have a bunch of blanks that you can fill with the modules of your choice, both server and client side. Want a monolithic fat client? Well, as long as it supports standards well, you could use that. Or a pure web-based client. Or mix and match.. With a calendaring server, I see almost a generic groupware infastructure emerging, for creating groupware solutions, using FOSS, in much the same manner as LAMP/WAMP did as a stack for creating web applications. Maybe its just one of the next layers in the LAMP/WAMP stack - MAC (Mail, Addressbook, Calendar) - not catchy enough though. Kevin -- Kevin M. Myer Senior Systems Administrator Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13 http://www.iu13.org
