You can start your countdown to breaking free from MsExchange: NewsForge reports today on a LinuxWorld announcement that NetLine's Open-Xchange Server, the engine behind Novell/SUSE's Openexchange Server, will be released under the GPL by the end of August. So why would a top-selling Linux-based collaboration kit choose to give it all away?

"The main reason for GPLing Open-Xchange Server is the speed of innovation we expect to get back from the community"

For example, while there are no connectors to bridge Open-XChange to other free-software office ware such as the KDE Kontact, this is free software -- someone with that itch to scratch is bound to cobble a bridge. Netline CEO Frank Hoberg tells us more than 1,600 developers have already signed up to work with Open-Xchange Server to help create an open source replacement for Microsoft Exchange.

[ Source: Open-Xchange Server goes open source ]