Few questions about Kolab

[Radu Filip]

Hello,

I am looking around to figure out if Kolab is the tool I need. Because all software are tools, I will describe first what my needs are:

I need to have a "central":
To-Do List
Notes
Calendar
Contact List

Each of these should have both "private" parts (accessible only to me, like private notes, contacts, etc) and shared parts (shared notes, contacts, etc), available/editable to others (also using Kontact).

By "central" I mean on a specific Linux server, with public IP address. These should be accessible primarily from KDE/Kontact clients (required), but it would be nice to have a web interface (preferred) for them or be able to use them from Outlook or Thunderbird (preferred).

One notable exception is e-mail: I want to keep it as it is now: based on Postfix and IMAP. I do not want my mail to be "migrated" in Kolab, if this is the correct technical term.

On that Linux server I currently run Gentoo, Postfix and Cyrus IMAP 2.2.12.

My questions are:

(1) Can Kolab work without involving e-mail at all?

(2) Is Kolab the tool that can meet my need as I described them above?

(3) Why there is no Kolab ebuild available in Gentoo repository, not even for "~86"? Is there a specific technical reason?

(4) Do I really have to setup an OpenLDAP server? Can Kolab work with users (/etc/passwd) and not involve OpenLDAP at all?

(5) While nobody can guess the future, is possible, what is the status of Kolab? It is still "helped" by Deutsche Government (or other big organization)? It is reached a critical mass and is going to stay here for a long time for now? Is it actively developed?

(6) What else should I know before starting to deploy Kolab?

Thank you!
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