Linux Email Company Scalix Announces Plans to Make Community Edition an Open Source Project

July 26, 2006; 10:15 AM
Scalix Corporation, a leading Linux email, calendaring and integration platform company, announced that it will turn its popular Scalix Community Edition free software product into an open source project.

In an effort to sponsor and support the creation of a complete enterprise open source application stack, the company will contribute major parts of the source code of the Scalix platform -- known for its stability and reliability -- to the community. This will allow more options for porting, localization, enhancements and further integration options with other systems. In a related announcement, Scalix announced a new licensing agreement with Hewlett-Packard that supports open sourcing the portions of the Scalix product line based on HP's proven OpenMail technology.

Scalix Community Edition Open Source will consist of the Scalix Server, a new web services API platform for application integration, the Scalix Installer, the Scalix Administration Console, Scalix Web Access Mobile and new search and indexing services, as well as Scalix Ready open source components. The open source project will be based on Scalix's upcoming major release of their commercial enterprise product family, scheduled for community preview in August 2006. Phased release of open source components will continue through March 2007.

Scalix has built a strong user community with more than 2,000 active members and more than 35,000 downloads of Community Edition since the free product was released last August. The software is used to run more than 10,000 email servers supporting over one million users and includes an AJAX-based web client and robust Outlook support. For further information on Scalix Community Edition, go to www.scalix.com/communityedition.

"We've been very excited about the success of the Scalix Community Edition product," said Glenn Winokur, Scalix's president and CEO. "One million deployed mailboxes and forums with thousands of active members are proof of the strong interest in a field-proven email and calendaring platform that scales well from small businesses to large enterprise environments. Scalix Community Edition Open Source will be a major step toward a complete stack of enterprise-ready open source applications, complementing other leading solutions such as SugarCRM and Alfresco," he added.

Open Source Roadmap

By the end of August and following the release of the community preview, Scalix will launch the new open source community website featuring the Scalix Community Forum, a public bugtracking system, an extended documentation wiki and a blog. Over the following months, Scalix will make component source code, localization kits, technical documentation and updated binaries available. This will start in September with the source code release of a web services platform for administration infrastructure, data access and application integration, the Scalix Web Access mobile client for wireless devices, the new search and indexing service and the Scalix installer. The source code of the underlying Scalix mail and directory server will be released in the first quarter of 2007.

"We're turning Community Edition into our first large-scale open source project and will add all the usual tools such as a public code repository, a bugtracking system and more feedback channels," said Florian von Kurnatowski, Scalix's newly appointed director of open source programs. "We recognize that taking a closed system and making it open source is a tough challenge. It will take code cleanup and other preparations which will take time to accomplish. However, we are committed to making Scalix available to the open source community and we're well underway in our efforts."

According to Scalix, the REST and SOAP APIs in Scalix's web services platform will enable rapid integration with other well-known projects as well as adding more members to Scalix's family of Clients of Choice.

The company will encourage and support a close relationship and partnership with other related open source communities, such as leading alternative desktop client providers (e.g. Mozilla, KDE Project, GNOME Project), communications ecosystems (e.g. Funambol, Asterisk, Jabber Software Foundation, HylaFAX), collaboration (e.g. Alfresco), business applications (e.g. SugarCRM, Compiere), systems management solutions (e.g. Hyperic, GroundWork Open Source), as well as messaging ecosystem support for anti-virus, anti-spam, directory, back-up and archiving.

"We've been talking to other communities for a long time," added von Kurnatowski. "Being a true open source player will enable us to deepen some of those relationships, to the benefit of developers, community users and commercial customers alike," he said.

Scalix is already offering the source code for the Novell Evolution client connector under a GPL-based license. The company's Outlook MAPI connector will remain closed source, but will be enabled to interoperate with the open source server components. Scalix will also provide a free upgrade path to current Community Edition users.

Open Source Licensing

Scalix will introduce and maintain a dual licensing strategy. The company will license open source components under the "Scalix Public License (SPL)" which is derived from the Mozilla Public License (MPL). This allows the use of third-party code not licensed under MPL and also permits the co-existence with commercial code components. There will also be a commercial license for the Scalix enterprise product as well as a mechanism for community contributions.

"Using an MPL-derived license in a dual-licensing model is very common in the open source community today. It is the most flexible choice of a license as it allows both the open source community and third parties with proprietary licenses to integrate," explained von Kurnatowski.

About Scalix Corporation

Scalix is the leading Linux email, calendaring and integration platform company that addresses the needs of CIOs, email administrators and end users for a Linux-based, open source supported, field tested collaboration environment. With over 1 million mailboxes worldwide, 35,000 Community Edition downloads, more than 2,000 community forum members and over 400 corporate customers, Scalix is the lowest-risk, Linux-based email and calendaring platform available to the enterprise today. Scalix is available online at www.scalix.com or through Linux resellers worldwide.