Novell Backs Open-Xchange With Sales, SupportNovell Backs Open-Xchange With Sales, Support

Novell on Thursday put its support and sales behind the German developer that makes the Open-Xchange collaboration server software.

Saying that it will sell as well as provide training, maintenance, and support for Netline Internet Service GmbH's Open-Xchange Server, Novell also said that the German firm's brand will replace that of SuSE Linux Openexchange Server, which Novell has been marketing separately. SuSE's Openexchange is based on the Netline engine.

Open-Xchange lets users share e-mail, calendar, tasks, threaded discussions, and documents through a browser interface, allowing heterogeneous environments composed of Windows, Linux, Unix, and Mac OS to collaborate.

Also as part of the deal, Novell will contribute its Openexchange code to the Open-Xchange community, while Netline's will be added to Novell's DeveloperNet program so that Open-Xchange can be integrated with other Novell products, including Evolution, Novell Linux Desktop, and ZENworks.

While an open-source version of Open-Xchange is available free of charge for downloading, a commercial edition --- with included support and maintenance, third-party applications, and connectors to other Novell software -- will ship in the first quarter of 2005.