Outlook connectors

After doing some research, I come to ask why  OpenGroupware wants to use a commercial connector for Outlook. I work  for a server / networking  company that sets up networks for  businesses in our area. We service businesses from 10 to 200 employees.  For the past few years, I have taken an interest in Linux and the open  source community as a whole. I started researching complete open source  alternatives to a Microsoft network. The most important thing we would  need to have before we could implement a completely open source network  for our customers is an Exchange server that works with Outlook. The  OpenGroupware project, in my opinion, is the best project for the job.  The only thing holding us back is that you have to have a commercial  connector.
  
 So back to the point...Would there be any way to  use an open source connector for Outlook with OpenGroupware? I have  found two projects that would work. One is called Brutus (  http://www.omesc.com/ ). They have actually created a connector that  uses MAPI and fully supports Exchange 5.5, Exchange 2000, and Exchange  2003. It doesn't use OWA or WebDAV or any of that...pure MAPI. And the  best part is, it can be used on a Windows, Linux, BSD, or any other  platform.
  
 Another alternative I found is called OpenConnector  ( http://openconnector.org/ ). It appears to be written in Visual C++  and doesn't talk about being cross-platform so I don't know if could  actually be used with OpenGroupware, since it is a Linux-based project.
  
  If anything, I hope this could give the OpenGroupware developers the  "piece of the puzzle" they would need in order to create a complete  replacement for the Microsoft Exchange Server. Not to mention that this  would be the only open source project that would offer this  interoperability.
  
 I am not subscribed to this mailing list,  so it would be much appreciated if you could direct any feedback  directly to my email ( [email protected] ).
  
  Thank you in advance,
  
  Ross