About ZideLook

Hello,
I'm looking at opengroupware.org because I'd like to find a way to
share Outlook's contacts, calendar and tasks between some Win2000/XP
clients in a small LAN where we have a Linux server (Mandrake, using
Samba to act as file server and PDC). We do not need a mailserver,
just the three functionalities mentioned above.
So I have some questions about Outlook integration:

- when using the ZideLook plugin, does Outlook work _exactly_ as if it
was accessing a local .pst file? I mean: will the unexperienced users
notice any differences?

- what happens if one of the clients is a notebook, and I want the
data to be accessible also from a local user account on the notebook
when the PC is used outside the office? Is there a way to keep a local
copy of the data, so that the local account can access it?

- as far as I can tell, currently _no_ open source or freeware
software exists which can help share Outlook's contacts, calendar and
data, right?

- supposing the answer to the previous question was "yes", the next
question is: why? I mean: is it due to some sort of license the
developers have to pay to Microsoft to make the Outlook integration
possible? Or simply because it's a lot of hard work and must be
rewarded?
In other words, let's suppose a developer has lots of free time
available and wants to develop an open source equivalent of ZideLook;
is this a possibility, or just fantasy?

Thanks a lot in advance.

-- 
Ciao,
  Marco.

..."Red", King Crimson 1974

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