Scalix Begins Roll Out of Open Source Messaging Software

Published: October 24, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

As it promised it would back in July, Scalix has begun to roll out the first components of its Scalix email server and related products in open source format.

The move to open source is one that the people behind Scalix have wanted to make, but the OpenMail license that Scalix had with Hewlett-Packard, the creator of the OpenMail product that is the foundation of the Scalix line of products, did not allow Scalix to release the code. But, last summer, HP and Scalix renegotiated and Scalix began the process of opening up the product.

Now, if you have Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 or 4, Fedora Core 5, SUSE Linux 9 or 10, or openSUSE 10.1, you can download binary server packages of the beta of Scalix 11. There is also a beta of Scalix Connect for Outlook 11, the secret sauce that connects Outlook clients to Scalix back-end servers so transparently that Outlook doesn't know it isn't talking to Microsoft's Exchange Server running on Windows. Scalix is also making the source code to the Scalix Server available, if you want to take a gander inside.

If you don't think the open source message is powerful, think again. Since announcing its plans to go open source in July, Scalix has seen its downloads for free versions of its software--even before the open source code was available--increase by a factor of six, according to Glenn Winokur, chief executive officer at Scalix.

In the first phase of the open sourcing of its products, Scalix Messaging Services, Scalix Mobile Web Client, Scalix Search and Indexing Services, Scalix Installer, and the localization kit for this software have all been released under a modified Mozilla Public License, which is called the Scalix Public License. All of this code is based on the future Scalix 11, which comes in a Community Edition, available for free, and an Enterprise Edition, which has high availability clustering and other plug-in support. Pricing for the final Scalix 11 release has not been set yet, but Scalix 10 Enterprise Edition cost a mere $60 per seat plus a $12 annual support fee. Because the Scalix Enterprise Edition products have important elements that many companies will be willing to pay for, these are closed source and they will be available for a fee.

Scalix plans to release more code under its Scalix Public License in the first quarter of 2007. Right now, the Scalix server products are only supported on Linux, but the open sourcing of the server means it can be ported to Solaris, AIX, and--ironically--back to HP-UX if the community wants to do it.

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