Simple Groupware has very low system and hardware requirements. All required software components are for free, so you only need to spend some efforts in customization. This will, of course, cost some money, but at a lower price compared to most other systems.

Requirements for the server

• Operating system: Linux, Windows, Solaris, FreeBSD, MacOS, etc.
  
  For reasons of performance and maintainability, my recommendation is Debian / Ubuntu, SuSE or Gentoo Linux. In general, you can use any kind of operating system which is capable of running PHP on a web-server, but Simple Groupware is only tested on Linux and Windows.
• Apache: 1.3.x or 2.x and higher / IIS 5.1 and higher
  
  I recommend Apache 2.2 or later. The biggest web-servers in the world are running Apache. It has the leading position in number of installations. Also worth mentioning is that Apache has reached the first position only by its quality, instead of other products that are pushed by millions of marketing dollars for getting position two or three.
• PHP: 5.1.x and higher
  
  If PHP is used in (Fast-)CGI mode, please use a newer version like PHP 5.2.4.
• Database: at least MySQL 5, PostgreSQL 8.1, Oracle 9.2, SQLite 3.0
  
  I recommend using MySQL 5.x. Version 4.0 and 4.1 are no longer supported by MySQL (see this page). Version 5.0 has better performance for schema updates, better unicode support and it includes some great new features like views, stored procedures and triggers.
• CPU: 1 GHz or more
• RAM: 512 MB or more
• Hard disk: 1 GB or more
  
  The initial disk usage including caches is 75 MB, the database (MySQL) needs 250 KB to get started.

Hardware
For testing you can start with a desktop machine or a notebook. The exact hardware requirements depend on the number of (power-)users and how frequently the system is used by them. With many users, you might use a dedicated server for the database and increase the amount of RAM and CPUs. You can also increase the number of web servers and database servers. When doing performance tests, please make sure to disable DoS protection in setup settings.

Customization
Since Simple Groupware is Open Source, you are not restricted to a special company. If you need special customizations for your business or some extra support level, you can easily hire the programmer or company of your choice.

Security
It is recommended to install the latest security updates for the operating system and its components (Apache / PHP / MySQL).
Using a shared hosting platform can cause unwanted downtime, resource fluctuation, and security problems.
If you want to provide better security for your data, use a dedicated server and make sure to limit physical access to a limited number of people.

Requirements for the client

Simple Groupware is a web-based application that fully runs inside a web-browser.

Supported browsers

• Firefox 1.x and higher
  
  It runs on most popular operating systems like Windows, MacOS and Linux. Furthermore it is free and can be run without an installation.
  Firefox is used for testing, development and support. Other browsers like Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari or Konqueror don't provide all the features (e.g. the WYSIWYG-editor) or have limitations in the layout.
• Opera 7.5 and higher (missing WYSIWYG-editor until 9.x)
  
  Opera runs much better than other browsers on machines with slower CPUs and/or less RAM. Therefore Opera is recommended on slower machines and mobile devices (esp. those running Windows Mobile 2003/2005).
• Safari 2.x
• Internet Explorer 6.0 and higher

Browser configuration

• Javascript needs to be enabled
• Cookies need to be accepted
• NOT required: Flash, Java, ActiveX