Better quality Groupware software in PCBSD/FreeBSD

[wanderson]

I have been a very satisfied user of FreeBSD and particularly PC-BSD for many years, including successfully installing the technology in community organizations, schools and small businesses. The release of PCBSD 8 is a milestone and brings PCBSD/FreeBSD much closer to substantially increased mainstream use by small business and organizations.

My posed question today is, if PCBSD developer group /iX-Systems would strongly consider porting a world class "groupware" server software to PCBSD/FreeBSD for "out of the box" small server use.

The first suggestion is Kolab2, which is an excellent Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) project started in Germany for German Government and is affiliated/based on the KDE development paradigm.

The second consideration is Zimbra - also FOSS - which is another excellent groupware product used in many major universities, Fortune 500 companies and small work groups.

Two others worth mentioning are Open-xchange Server and Zarafa Server - both more similar in feel to Microsoft Exchange server.

The few products in FreeBSD ports are OK, but need to be added to, particularly for my clients/associated organizations that are seeking a more equal or superior alternative to Microsoft Exchange, along with their FOSS based operating system solution.

Recently I learned that ClearOS, a (CentOS) GNU/Linux based solution includes Kolab2, and eBOX (Ubuntu GNU/Linux based) originally out of Spai, includes Horde Groupware server.

Where is the PCBSD/FreeBSD alternative?

I would like feedback from other PCBSD/FreeBSD "business/productivity" oriented supporters/users, as well as PCBSD.org and iX-Systems

Wendell Anderson
wanderson@kimalcorp.org