Open sourcing Scalix's ctrl-alt-Exchange (and Wikipedia parody)

It's deja vu all over again here at IT Blogwatch, as Scalix makes its Exchange-alternative open source. Not to mention The Onion's hilarious parody on Wikipedia...

Barbara Darrow was quick with the news:

Scalix will offer up a good chunk of its next e-mail release to the open source world ... Components of Scalix Community Edition will be available under a license modeled on the Mozilla Public License (MPL). That will enable the legal use of third-party code not licensed under the MPL to coexist with commercial code ... The various open source components will roll out through next year. The company's existing Community Edition is free but is not available under open source licensing. It has been positioned as an adjunct to the paid Enterprise Edition but for users who do not need that version's collaborative features ... inked a new licensing pact with Hewlett-Packard that will enable it to open source the portions of the Scalix line that are based on HP's OpenMail.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols adds:

It has always a bit ironic that Scalix Corp.'s well-regarded Linux email, calendaring, and integration server was not itself open-source. On July 26th, the company changed its tune, announcing that it would be turning its popular Scalix Community Edition free software product into an open-source project ... Specifically, the company is releasing its Scalix Community Edition Open Source. This will consist of the Scalix Server, a new web services API (application programming interface) platform for application integration, the Scalix Installer, the Scalix Administration Console, Scalix Web Access Mobile, and new search and indexing services, as well as other Scalix Ready open-source components ... By the end of August, and following the release of the community preview, Scalix will launch a new open-source community website featuring the Scalix Community Forum, a public bug-tracking system, an extended documentation wiki, and a blog.

Your humble Blogwatcher worked on OpenMail, back in the day:

When I was at HP (for 14 years!), we thought it would be impossible to open source OpenMail. The code was thought too polluted with stuff that we didn't have the rights to publish. Things like dbVista and the Microsoft-proprietary TNEF unpacker. Looks like the ex-OpenMail engineers at Scalix Bracknell have some Interesting Times ahead. However, it looks like the opened code won't include the MAPI Outlook bits. By specifying the "Community Edition" Scalix is signaling that it won't publish the source of things like MAPI, TNEF, AD integration, and Ajax group scheduling.

Self-confessed versatilist Tarry Singh wants it bad:

I'm into that "Open Source Enterprize Package" solution which we will be proposing for that international project for Uganda. All that we'll be running on one big server with 100% redundancy. All client communication will run through the WiMax towers which these guys have in abundance. The idea is to provide support for a cluster of technical colleges across that country. Anyways on the server level ... we'll keep a good look out for the developments in the Open Source world. With Scalix releasing an OpenSource version of its email server, I will have to find a way to round up a couple of email servers I have.

Josh Maher wonders who will be the 800lb gorilla:

As the open source community puts together better products, taking on email servers was innevitable. The products they have put out so far have been good, but have not been able to gain strong marketshare. Scalix is adding their product to the list of vendors that are now open source. These products are great to compete, but with Lotus Notes already positioning to compete in the Linux space, some of these vendors may have a more difficult time.

Toledo based Cajun Mormon Paul Robichaux suggests wedding bells:

Scalix and Zimbra should get married ... Zimbra has a better web interface (IMHO) than Scalix does, and better admin tools to boot; however, Scalix has a mature and proven back-end system. If they really wanted to give IBM and Microsoft headaches, the two of them should team up somehow and combine forces. I can't take credit for the idea; fellow MVP William Lefkovics suggested it to me a few months ago.

Glyn Moody calls Scalix a "Chameleon":

Given that the company was successful with its earlier strategy, this move to a dual-licensing approach is an interesting comment on the even greater advantages of being open source, and not just running on it.

Buffer overflow:

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Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk.