Is there a good freeware/open source alternative to MS Exchange? Doesn't need to be windows dependant, it can be a linux-only sw.
You can try XMail
XMail is an Internet and intranet mail server featuring an ESMTP server, POP3 server, finger server, TLS support for SMTP and POP3 (both server and client side), multiple domains, no need for users to have a real system account, SMTP relay checking, DNS based maps check, custom (IP based and address based) spam protection, SMTP authentication (PLAIN LOGIN CRAM-MD5 POP3-before-SMTP and custom), a POP3 account syncronizer with external POP3 accounts, account aliases, domain aliases, custom mail processing, direct mail files delivery, custom mail filters, mailing lists, remote administration, custom mail exchangers, logging, and multi-platform code. XMail sources compile under GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, OSX, Solaris and NT/2K/XP.
As twk said you have to be more specific, maybe one of these groupware solutions fits your needs:
Mozilla Sunbird (or Thunderbird's "Lightning" project) in combination with e.g. the "Sun Java Calendar Server".