Citadel: open source groupware ... today.

There's been a lot of buzz this week about open source groupware, and a lot of people believe that there is a void in this space -- that the open source world needs a standalone, feature-rich open source groupware server. But did you know that one already exists? The Citadel project has been diligently working on such a server for years now, and a mature, stable, functional implementation exists today.

Perhaps the Citadel project just has a PR problem, because nobody seems to know that it exists. That's where LXer comes in. :) Thanks to this community, we have a place to trumpet a little, and let the world know that you can download a server program today (not a year from now) that has many of the "Exchange killer" features you've been looking for:

• A complete, standalone server -- no need to cobble everything together yourself
• Email (SMTP, IMAP, POP)
• Group calendaring and scheduling
• Contact lists
• Task lists
• Web-based access to all of the above through an intuitive, attractive web frontend
• Access to mail, calendars, etc. using GroupDAV-enabled clients such as upcoming versions of Kontact and Evolution
• Built-in instant messenger service
• Multiple domain support
• Federated server support for wide horizontal scalability
• Bulletin board service
• Easy to install

Perhaps this sounds more like an advertisement, or a press release, than a piece of news. But it's important to remember that the Citadel project is staffed entirely by volunteers -- there is no corporate backing. So we felt that the good people of LXer can help us get the word out that this very capable system exists. Give it a look ... www.citadel.org