Novell begins open beta for GroupWise 7

Finding the right collaboration platform can be a tricky thing. But from what I am seeing so far with GroupWise 7, Novell might really be onto something here.

Novell (Profile, Products, Articles) on Tuesday rolled out the open beta version of its GroupWise 7 collaboration platform, featuring support for Microsoft (Profile, Products, Articles) Outlook, usability enhancements, and new migration tools.

GroupWise 7, due for final release in August, will let users run the Outlook client with a GroupWise back end. Version 7 provides a connector between GroupWise and either Outlook 2003 or XP.

GroupWise 7 also will ship with Novell’s Suse Linux Enterprise Server. Prebundling the Linux server for use with GroupWise will give customers a great opportunity to evaluate Linux for a part of their organization, said Wendy Steinle, director of product marketing at Novell.

Unlike competing messaging offerings, GroupWise is cross-platform, running on the NetWare, Linux, and Windows platforms as well as the Linux, Mac, and Windows clients, Steinle said. [Read the rest]