SCO's Linux grabs for Microsoft e-mail

The SCO Group announced new Linux software Tuesday that lets small businesses set up servers for e-mail, calendars and contact list--a product the company says will be less expensive than Microsoft's Exchange.

		Special coverage LinuxWorld 2003 Linux advocates gather to promote the OS.

SCOoffice Mail Server, a new and renamed version of SCO's Volution Messaging Server, can act as a central server for machines running Microsoft's Outlook software, the company announced at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo.

In addition, SCO announced its SCOoffice Server package, which includes SCO's version Linux itself, the mail server software, and SCOoffice Base Server, which provides an interface for configuring server tasks such as looking up numerical Internet addresses and sharing files.

With Exchange, customers must pay not just for the software itself, but also for the number of PCs that tap into it.

SCO, based in Lindon, Utah, and formerly called Caldera International, sells Linux software, but most of its revenue comes from its Unix products, OpenServer and UnixWare. The financially strapped company is investigating how it can derive more revenue from its Unix software.