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Lack of interoperability and proprietary technologies are the two most severe causes for increased prices, decreased collaboration capability, and lack of competition. Almost all users have already experienced vendor lock-in in one form or another. Kolab is different. Based entirely and exclusively on Free Software technologies and focused on Open Standards, Kolab users know no vendor lock-in or forced upgrades. Where proprietary software vendors provide users with a conditional permission to use the software for a limited time, Kolab truly becomes your software.

Free Software/Open Source guarantees all users a perpetual right of usage for any purpose, auditing, and even modification. Kolab is exclusively Free Software without any proprietary components, providing its users with substantial benefits, such as security for investment into Kolab, which is not dependent upon any particular vendor, Kolab Systems included. Users of Kolab can freely choose among the partners in the Kolab Enterprise Community and beyond to find the right partner for their service needs. That independence guarantees protection from future monopoly pricing scenarios. Instead, the versatility of Kolab clients provides users with a gradual migration path out of a lock-in situation towards a fully Free Software solution.

Open Standards allow users to exchange information freely between multiple applications and to archive it without the risk of proprietary product strategies rendering their data inaccessible and useless. Kolab is built on Open Standards and the Kolab XML specification itself is publicly available, maintained by Kolab System and the Kolab Enterprise Community, and free to be implemented by any party. Any IMAP capable mail program could become a full or partial Kolab client within days by virtue of implementing the Kolab XML specification.

This transparency and openness also transcends the development process behind Kolab, which largely takes place in the Free Software community. People who have participated in the development of Kolab over the past years include key community figures, such as Till Adam, Kalle Dalheimer, David Faure, Thomas McGuire, Martin Konold, Bernhard Reiter, Aaron Seigo, Sebastian Trüg and many more. This community centric process is backed up and supplemented by professional product management, quality assurance, testing and services provided by Kolab Systems and the Kolab Enterprise Community.