If you need connectivity to Exchange, OS X out of the box supports it. It's not 100%, but it does mail, calendar and address book stuff well enough. Many other clients exist as long as Exchange has the web access component turned on. Evolution for Linux is one.

I find it somewhat amusing that out of the box, Windows can't talk to Exchange. But OS X can.

The mentality to keep Office and Windows so isolated and separate inside Microsoft has always been weird to me. Apple introduces their first tablet in 2010, and day 1 shipped touch capable office productive apps. Microsoft, who deserves credit for trying to push tablets earlier on the Windows side, still lacks a proper tablet version of Office in 2013.