Microsoft's competitor in the field of email servers, the software company Netline announced that it will enter the open source area.
The company's latest version of the company's email server platform is only used in one tenth of the development time because of open source.
Six weeks ago, Netline decided to release its Open - XChange email server source code for the software of this software on Wednesday, this software is released. The version has entered the beta test phase.
Netline's CEO Frank Hoberg said that this fast release certificate is valid for business model of open source. He said that the company has improved the development speed through cooperation with an open source group. "If we do its development and test, it will cost more than 10 times more time."
The software can only be used on SUSE Linux, and now you can install on six major Linux versions: Debian, SUSE, Red Hat, Slackware Mandrake, and FreeBSD. The server software can connect with a browser or email program, which is compatible with open source browser KDE Konqueror and Mozilla Sunbird, and any browser that performs ICAL standards.
Open - The email program you can use on XChange includes open source email programs Evolution and KDE Kontact. It can also connect Microsoft Outlook through the connector, the connector is the company's proprietary software (non-open source software), but will be provided to individual use and test after six to eight weeks.
Hoberg said that an open source group has a positive reflection for the company to release the software as a GPL license. In the past six weeks, with the help of them, not only on other Linux versions, but more than 1,000 open source developers signed on the send list, and hundreds of people submitted the error report. The company said that it issued a source code to speed up the development speed and allow the software to accept a more thorough test.
"Now our developers can concentrate on developing software features, rather than testing. The correction procedure is not a problem, discovery errors and wrong reasons are the most difficult." Netline said, from August decided to enter the open source, sales There is a lot of growth. The company said that this year's profit is more than 25% from 25% to 30% higher than that last year, in August and September sales growth is particularly obvious.
Hoberg said this new business model - providing both software free versions in market - is the only scalable pattern that allows the company to compete with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes. Exchange and Lotus Notes are the masters of the market. Open-Xchange's market share is less than one percent, it hopes to expand to five% in the next few years.
Hoberg reminds the company that uses this model to say that it is important to grasp the opportunity. He said that the current timing is correct for their server programs, because since the company's creation, the product has been relatively mature after eight years of development. He said that the current timing is also correct because there are many commercial open source code programs on the market, including server software JBoss and database software MySQL. "Open source helps to push the company's power to a higher level, but you first have to take power through a powerful brand."
Netline plans to release two independent commercial versions of this product in the first quarter of 2005 - a Linux senior user for Microsoft Exchange administrators, a Linux senior user who wants to run the software in a variety of Linux. Open - Xchange can download free from Netline website.
