WebProNews

Commercial support from German firm Netline for the Open-Xchange comes to more platforms this year.

The collaboration suite Open-Xchange (OX-5) had been offered for Novell's SUSE Linux platform, but will now be bundled with the competing Red Hat Enterprise Linux product.

Open-Xchange offers tools similar to those found in Microsoft Exchange. Email, calendaring, contacts, and other heavily interconnected functions stand as part of the product. Users can access those functions through a multitude of clients, like Outlook or Thunderbird.

Price will be a driving factor for enterprises wishing to adopt Open-Xchange. The Tarrytown, NY-based company says its product, now at version 5, costs 50 percent less than Exchange. The product also supports Microsoft Sharepoint functions.

Novell had been selling its SUSE Linux Openexchange Server outside the United States. It will drop that product from its catalog at the end of 2005 in favor bundling OX-5 with SUSE. CNET News has reported that the company will offer support for Mac and Solaris products this year.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.