Open-Xchange Offers New Connector Tool for Thunderbird

If you like the idea of using the open source groupware solution Open-Xchange as an alternative to Microsoft Exchange but are flummoxed about managing email and contacts with it, then you'll love Open-Xchange's Community OXtender for Thunderbird. It's a great new tool for companies that want to migrate away from Microsoft Outlook and use Mozilla's powerful Thunderbird personal information management client instead.

The new connector, developed by software development company FusionworkX, is an add-on that allows Open-Xchange customers to use Thunderbird to manage email, contact information, and calendars while still maintaining access to appointments, contacts, and data stored in the Open-Xchange server. Open-Xchange offers similar connectors for Microsoft Outlook and Mac OS X, but the Community OXtender for Thunderbird is a great option for companies that prefer to use open source software whenever possible.

Major features include:

Calendar features:
* Synchronisation of appointments in personal or public folders
* Support of recurring appointments
* Support of appointments with groups and resources
* Support of mail notification for incoming and outgoing invitations
* Fully integrated Free/Busy support

Contact features (only for OX6):
* Synchronisation of personal contacts
* Synchronisation of the global addressbook

The Community OXtender for Thunderbird is available in two versions. The stable version contains the features mentioned above, and any necessary bugfixes. The unstable version (for Thunderbird 3 and Lightning 1.0pre only) contains additional features that are still under development and not yet fully integrated.