The San Mateo, California-based software vendor is well known as a Linux supporter, but the code for its core eponymous email and calendaring product has until now been a closed source product. The Community Edition was originally launched in August 2005, but while that allowed for free, unlimited software use, it did not grant code access.
That will change over the coming months with the creation of the Scalix Community Edition Open Source project and the incremental release of the code for web services administration, wireless connectivity, search and indexing, and the core mail and directory server.
In order to make the move to open source Scalix has also negotiated a new agreement with Hewlett-Packard Co, which developed the Open Mail technology on which Scalix is based. Scalix licensed the Open Mail code from HP in 2003 after it stopped selling the software to new customers in 2001.
According to Scalix’s plan, the code for the Community Edition Open Source will be released under a derivation of the Mozilla Public License that will allow the use of third-party code not licensed under MPL and permit co-existence with commercial code.
The move will see Scalix adopt a dual-license approach, as it will continue to offer the Enterprise Edition product under a commercial license. The company will also continue to offer its first small-scale open source project, Scalix Connect for Evolution, under the GPL.
The code release will begin in August following the launch of the company’s next commercial enterprise product. A website will then be made available featuring the Scalix Community Forum, public bug tracking, and a documentation wiki.
September will see the source code release of a web services platform for administration, data access and application integration, the Scalix Web Access mobile client, the search and indexing service, and the Scalix installer. The source code of the core Scalix mail and directory server will be released in the first quarter of 2007.
We recognize that taking a closed system and making it open source is a tough challenge, said Florian von Kurnatowski, who will lead the project as Scalix’s director of open source programs. 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.
According to Scalix’s president and CEO, Glenn Winokur, there are already over 2,000 Scalix Community registered members, who have helping the company to understand how it can engage with the community.
The company is also hoping that the release of open source code will help it to integrate with related open source projects and communities, such as Mozilla, KDE and Gnome on the desktop, Alfresco, SugarCRM, and Compiere in the enterprise applications space, and Hyperic and GroundWork in the management space.
Scalix pitches itself as the Linux-based alternative to Microsoft Exchange but also faces competition from the likes of IBM and Novell on the commercial side, as well as open source rivals such as Open-Xchange, Zimbra, and Novell’s Hula project to open source its NetMail offering.
