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Jun. 8, 2009

As a whole, Red Hat's Fedora program simply allows open source enthusiasts to better see and appreciate the future of Linux technology. Some of this technology is an early demonstration of helpful functions that come up in other Linux distributions.

By creating new features in Fedora, Red Hat can help drive improvements to a wide range of open source projects.

It really all centers around interoperability. Fedora contributors are constantly working on technologies which enhance, improve and advance interoperability because its audience of Linux developers and enthusiasts interact with a wide variety of systems on a daily basis.

Fedora v. 11 offers the open source community a chance to see these future technologies at work in the real world.

An important interoperability feature included in the upcoming release of Fedora 11 is OpenChange (OC). OC aims to provide a portable open source implementation of the Microsoft Exchange and Exchange Server protocols.

Microsoft Exchange is a proprietary messaging and collaborative software product. And until now, open source clients have been unable to use its full functionality because Exchange utilizes a proprietary protocol, the Messaging Application Programming Interface or MAPI.

OpenChange is the first open source implementation of the MAPI protocol. The OpenChange implementation provides a client-side library which can be used in existing messaging clients to offer native compatibility with Exchange.

Using the “libmapi” library, OpenChange allows clients such as Thunderbird, Evolution, K-Mail and other open source e-mail applications to utilize the full range of MAPI functionality including messaging, shared calendars, contact databases, public folders, notes and tasks.

All applications can now start speaking the same language, regardless of platform.

In order to enable OpenChange and libmapi to function properly, parts of Samba 4, the open source software suite for interoperability with Microsoft network resources, has been updated in Fedora 11.

Samba is the software that allows Linux hosts to use services such as Windows File and Printer Sharing, authentication and authorization functionality and name resolution.

Source: Red Hat.

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