Confusion, roadmap, and other things...

[sdonnet]

I am a newbie to Open-XChange, and I have read a lot of docs from your website, and I am still confused. My customer want to use Server 6, but NOT Server 5, due to the look and feel of new version. He is quite sure he wants the OX Extender for Outlook for about 10 people. But I need to install it as soon as possible (starting this month), and I am still confused :
- by the different versions,
- by the roadmap...
So, my questions are :
- may I start NOW with Hyperion Beta (=Server 6 ?),
- may I upgrade it with the final version (and about when ?)
- may I buy in the very near future, OX Extenders for Outlook upon this version (and same question : about when ? (as we have started the Q3 2008 )

Thanks in advance for any reply...

[svensen]

Hi,

I'm kind of an OX newbie myself, but with a little help from Martin, I got an idea what this is all about.

The most confusing thing to me was that where are two hyperion versions: 6.4.2 and 6.5

6.4.2 is currently in use as Hosting Edition, Express Edition and can be installed from source via the discontinued (but still working) community installer.

The Express/Source Edition has got a really nice and useful Admin GUI which is not present in other versions

6.5 is the upcoming version of Open-Xchange Server and OX:HE
6.5 is to be the successor of OX5, OX:EE and OX:HE
6.5 can manage mail filters via sieve
6.5 is beta, and work in progress, so it should not be used in a productive environment
6.5 has its HTTP API slightly changed, so current 3rd party clients and connectors like Funambol won't function correctly with the server at present time
6.5 has no admin gui at all, administration is done via command line entirely.

6.4.2 on the other hand is stable and still supported
6.4.2 can't manage sieve on it's own
6.4.2 works with connectors and tools currently available
6.4.2 can manage mailboxes, users groups, doamins with a descent admin GUI, but you can use CLI if you want to
6.4.2 data can be easily migrated to 6.5

I think, if you want a stable groupware server, take a look at OX:EE, or the community installer. I was having difficulties on amd64, so you might want to try a 32 bit debian 4.0 first with OX:CE, there is also an OX:EE VMWare image on the open-xchange.com download site, this one is great for evaluation.

Martin is welcome to correct me, if there is anything wrong with my statements, as I am still relatively new to the OX:community

Regards,
Sven

[Martin Heiland]

Hey Sven,

only one correction from my side:
"6.5 is to be the successor of OX5, OX:EE and OX:HE"

"6.5" is the current version number of Open-Xchange Server 6. It is the successor of Open-Xchange Server 5, thats correct.

But it will not replace OX:EE/OX:HE - its a common foundation for all those products and completely Open-Source. When i speak about "products" i mean software which is actually sold to customers and partners, they get the packages, documentation, support, maintenance and so on. But all those products are built from a common codestream, which is public available via CVS and packages. 6.5 is currently Beta, we're finishing development and fix remaining bugs. Every Beta, RC or Final release will be announced on the forums. The final release is planed for mid/end of August, but don't fix me to a precise date, it'll be final when its done

If your customer want to use the Outlook Connector and has a user base of about 10, i'd suggest to give the Express Edition a try, it's designed for small in-house deployments and as sven said it comes with a decent administration interface.

Greetings

[sdonnet]

Thanks Sven, thanks Martin,

So, if I understand well, taking the "OX-EE-01-STD-B5" basic package and its extensions for +5 users has :
- the advantage to be in 6.4.2 stream, and so, with the new UI,
- the capability to have 10 OX Extenders for Outlook, and may be more,
- the compatibility with the CVS repository

For administration, I prefer CLI to UI

Is it OK on the 3 points ?

Do I have to upgrade the connectors, when upgrading the server version ?

[Martin Heiland]

Hi,

"- the compatibility with the CVS repository"
depends what you mean - 6.4.2 is not 6.5, the version jump may be little, but we've changed a LOT at the server, for example building a whole new architecture. 6.4.2 is still at the CVS and ever will be, but it's a stable branch meaning it will not receive major code updates. Upgrading to a later product will be possible because of course, the database schema etc. is compatible. There are already some guys that updated their 6.4.2 CVS build to 6.5.

The other two points are absolutely correct. You don't have to upgrade the Outlook OXtender on every new release of the server, but typically Open-Xchange releases a updated version of the OXtender which brings improvements. Basically you can use a older version of the OXtender with a newer server, but some fixes and improvements only can be used when having both sides up to date.

[sdonnet]

Very thanks Martin,

It's now OK for me.

[batnator]

Will be the 6.5 trunk or the following trunks ever available via CVS to compile it like the wiki instructions to build from sources?

On my gentoo Systems it's not funny to handle the binary precompiled packages, the selfmade 6.4.2 builds from CVS integrates perfectly in these systems.

[Martin Heiland]

Hi,

exactly like 6.4.2, 6.5 is already available via CVS - it's the current HEAD branch and as soon as it's becoming more stable there will be a 6.5 branch.

Greetings

[nbetm]

Hi,

Martin & Sven, thanks for all this information. It's very well for me, but I have two questions:

1.) There is any way to use OXTender(whatever 6.0 version) with 6.4.2_branch?

2.) There is any posibility that Admin GUI will be avaible for 6.5?

best regards!
nbetm.