(fwd) [oclug] The road ahead for the SME Server...

[Raymond Wood]

Apologies for duplication; the original post was marked '[OT]' -- IMHO
this post is squarely 'on topic'.  YMMV...

Have Fun,
Raymond

----- Forwarded message from "Michael P. Soulier" -----

From: "Michael P. Soulier" 
To: Ottawa Carleton Linux Users Group
Subject: [oclug] [OT] The road ahead for the SME Server...
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 20:08:36 -0500

    For anyone interested in the future development of the SME Server,
formerly the e-smith server and gateway...

    Mike

From: [snip]
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 17:58:00 -0500
Subject: [e-smith-devinfo] The road ahead for the SME Server...

Devinfo list members,

As has been hinted on this list, we are following Red Hat's lead with 
Fedora and turning the SME Server developer release over to the community.
 
I don't think that this should come as a big surprise to anyone who has 
followed developments within the industry or on this list over the past 
years.

As was eloquently stated on the list earlier today, Mitel is a 
commercial enterprise and has decided to focus our developers on our 
commercial products.  Some of our developers may choose to continue to 
stay involved with whatever community effort emerges, doing so on their 
own time and outside of their regular responsibilities within Mitel. 

As noted below, we will be continuing to develop applications on top of 
our commercial release and as we make changes to GPL components we will 
release them to the community just as any other developer should do. 

What does this mean for the SME Server unsupported developer release, 
this list, e-smith.org, our commercial products, etc.?   Read on...

* SME Server 6.0 unsupported developer release

   We will be preparing a 6.0 unsupported developer release in the next 
   week or two that will essentially be 6.0beta3 plus a few recent 
   security updates.  This will be the last "official" unsupported 
   developer release that we have planned.  Any future releases are 
   really up to you.  (For all of you who have been asking for a roadmap 
   in the past, now is your chance!)

* e-smith.org bulletin boards

   We have already received agreement from the contribs.org staff that 
   they could host the forums there and we had tentatively agreed to
   perform the move next week.  (I was actually waiting to announce all
   this until after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and after I had 
   received confirmation from the contribs.org folks that they were 
   all set on their end.)

* devinfo mailing list

   Given that the development will be taking place outside of Mitel, we
   would like to see another host found for this mailing list.  The
   contribs.org staff has indicated their willingness to host the list
   and we will continue to maintain this list until such a list exists.

* Bug reporting

   Again, as this will now be a community project, we are expecting
   that the community will start up a bug reporting database. Mitel 
   Networks will continue to accept bug reports to smebugs at mitel.com,
   and will continue to process them there until an alternative system
   is running, and will thereafter forward new bug reports to the new 
   system.

   Commercial customers should, of course, continue to contact their
   reseller for support as they do today.

* Copyright and licensing

   The code in the SME Server remains copyright Mitel Networks and is
   released under the GNU General Public License.  The GPL provides 
   you with the freedom to modify the software as you choose, but 
   also comes with the requirement to share those modifications.  We 
   trust that those people who derive software from the SME Server 
   will comply with the requirements of the GPL.

* 6000 MAS commercial release
 
   We currently use the 6000 MAS base operating system as the base for
   several solutions including the 6010 Teleworker Solution, the 6040
   Office Server Suite and 6042 Managed VPN. 

   Given that the 6040 Office Server Suite and 6042 Managed VPN are 
   both mature, stable, robust products that have the range of 
   functionality that our customers have asked for, we have moved our 
   developer focus to the Teleworker Solution and several other upcoming 
   products.  At the current time we do not have any plans to further
   develop the 6040 and 6042 packages.  We will continue to fix 
   reported bugs and issue security updates for supported releases, 
   but do not plan on adding additional features until we are presented 
   with appropriate business reasons to do so.

   In regions where we currently have trained resellers who can support 
   the products, we will continue to sell the 6040/6042 products and 
   support existing customers. 

   Development continues strongly on our 6010 Teleworker Solution and
   other telephony-focused products and sales continue to be available
   globally.

   If you have further questions about our commercial products, please
   contact me directly.

I am extremely pleased to see the comments posted both here and already 
over at the contribs.org forum and very much look forward to seeing what
will evolve out of this community.

If you have questions about all of this, please do let me know.

Unfortunately, I will be offline for the next four days celebrating 
U.S. Thanksgiving but I will certainly review comments when I return
on Monday, December 1st.

Thank you all for the efforts you have put into the SME Server over
the many years and I look forward to seeing how it evolves.

Regards,
Dan

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the
homeless, whether the mad destruction is brought under the name
of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"
(Gandhi)
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