bernhard: doc/faq faq.dat,1.27,1.28

cvs at intevation.de cvs at intevation.de
Thu Aug 19 16:41:15 CEST 2004


Author: bernhard

Update of /kolabrepository/doc/faq
In directory doto:/tmp/cvs-serv13632

Modified Files:
	faq.dat 
Log Message:
Overhaul to make this the Kroupware Contract FAQ.
	Changed from presents to past tense on many questions.
	Shortened and referred to the Kolab Project Website where appropriate.


Index: faq.dat
===================================================================
RCS file: /kolabrepository/doc/faq/faq.dat,v
retrieving revision 1.27
retrieving revision 1.28
diff -u -d -r1.27 -r1.28
--- faq.dat	16 Mar 2004 19:33:16 -0000	1.27
+++ faq.dat	19 Aug 2004 14:41:13 -0000	1.28
@@ -1,68 +1,68 @@
 <c>General
-<q>What is the Kroupware project?
+<q>What is the Kroupware Contract?
 
 <a> The companies Erfrakon, Intevation and Klarälvdalens Datakonsult 
-        have been contracted by the German
+        had been contracted by the German
         <a href="http://www.bsi.bund.de/">Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI)</a>
 	(Federal Agency of IT-Security)
-    	to provide a Free Software groupware solution accessible
+    	to provide a groupware solution accessible
 	with Windows running Outlook and GNU/Linux running KDE clients.
 	These companies leveraged Free Software components and 
 	operated in an open manner as much as possible
 	to maximise the benefits for the Free Software community.
 	Kroupware is the name for the activities done by this group
-	under this contract.  
+	under this contract between October 2002 and July 2003.
 
 <c>General
-<q>What comes out of the Kroupware project?
+<q>What came out of the Kroupware contract?
 
 <a>	
 	The resulting concept is called <strong>Kolab</strong>.
-	The server component and is based 
-	on mature Free Software components like Postfix 
-	and Cyrus IMAPD. Check the architecture document
+	A server implementation now called Kolab1 Server was
+	developed on on mature Free Software components like Postfix 
+	and Cyrus IMAPD. Check the original architecture document
 	available from 
-	<a href="http://www.kroupware.org/"><tt>kroupware.org</tt></a>
+	<a href="http://kroupware.kolab.org/"><tt>kroupware.kolab.org</tt></a>
 	for the details.
 	<p>
 	
-	The KDE client side is be based on enhanced versions of KMail,
+	The KDE client side was based on enhanced versions of KMail,
 	KOrganizer and other KDE 3.1 components. 
 	The results have been incorporated into the codebase 
-	for forthcoming KDE versions.
-
+	for forthcoming KDE versions. However only a part of it was
+	activated in the KDE 3.2 release as KDE development continues.
 
 <c>General
-<q>Is the German government sponsoring/supporting the project?
+<q>Was the German government sponsoring/supporting Kolab?
 
 <a>
-	To be very precise the project is _not_ "supported" 
-	or "sponsored" by the German Government. 
+	At no point Kolab was "supported" or "sponsored" 
+	by the German Government to be precise.
 	Saying this would missrepresent the situation.
-	The Kroupware project is a regular commercial business contract 
+	Kroupware is a regular commercial business contract 
 	after the three companies won the tender 
 	to deliver a solution for the groupware 
-	needs of the BSI (compare answer 1.1). 
+	requirements of the BSI (compare answer 1.1). 
 	The participating companies organise the open development 
-	of this Free Software only to create the best technical results.
+	of this Free Software under the name of Kolab 
+	only to create the best technical results.
 	This could be understood as "indirect funding of Free Software", 
 	but it is not more funding then 
 	"indirectly funding proprietary software" when you buy 
 	a solution from proprietary vendors.
-	It helps the project if you 
+	It helps us if you 
 	avoid the simplification and speak about 
-	a contract for a solution 
-	which has positive side effects for Free Software.
+	a contract for a solution having a good side effect for Free Software.
 
 <c>General
-<q>Is it a "philosophical" goal to replace Exchange?
+<q>Is it a goal to replace Exchange?
 
 <a>
-	This is a contracted service where our client wanted to
+	This is a contracted service where our customer wanted to
 	set up a groupware solution given certain conditions.
-        That third parties can also enjoy the results of the software side
-	is just a benefit from the Free Software business model our
-	companies work by.
+        Third parties can also enjoy some of the software, but this 
+	is just a benefit from the Free Software business model of
+	the involved companies.
 	<p>
 	So no, it's not a goal to build a replacement for Exchange 
         or Outlook. On the software side we have assembled a solution 
@@ -75,68 +75,53 @@
 <q>What is the plan beyond version 1? Is there a roadmap?
 
 <a>     
-	Check the development mailinglist for the latest plans
-	for Kolab.
-        The focus of the Kroupware Project 
-	is on successfully finishing the project and keeping
-	our client happy.
-        Naturally our companies are open for contracts
-        to design and implement more features in guarenteed timeframes.
+	Check <a href="http://www.kolag.org/>www.kolab.org</a>
+	for progress about Kolab.
+	The Kroupware contract was finished July 2003.
+        Naturally our companies are still active within Kolab
+	and you will find us open for contracts
+        to design and implement more features in guarenteed timeframe.
 	<p>
-	Note that almost the entire client features have already 
-        been incorporated into the development of KDE. 
-	These results of the Kroupware project
-        will continue its' life in KDE. 
-	The components of the Kolab Server have their
-	own lifes already.
+	Note that the client feature code has been given 
+	into the development versions of KDE and will most likely continue
+	to live there. The components of the Kolab Server already have their
+	own lifes.
 
 <c>General
 <q>Can I help (with translations)?
 
 <a>	
-	The Kolab community welcomes anyone who wants to contribute.
-	We coordinate ourselfs using the public mailinglists, 
-	more information to be found the website (kolab.kde.org).
-	<p>
-	Also read answer 2.2.
+	Check the website of the Kolab Project.
+	<p> 
+	Also read the answer to 2.2.
 
 <c>KDE Client
-<q>Will there be other Kolab clients than the one you develop for KDE?
+<q>Are there other Kolab1 clients than the one you have developed for KDE?
 
 <a> 
-	The Kroupware contract itself had a limited focus.
-	We concentrated on the KDE Kolab client. 
+	The Kroupware contract itself had a limited focus and is 
+	now concluded.
+	We concentrated on the KDE Kolab1 client. 
 	The whole Kolab server concept is based on open standards,
 	thus other groups like the Mozilla or Evolution people 
 	are welcome to adopt them and become full Kolab clients. 
 	It is up to them and their community to decide to do this.
-
-<c>KDE Client
-<q>Can I help translating the KDE client?
-
-<a>
-	The KDE Kolab Client is already translated into a couple
-	of languages (most notably German). Help with other
-	translations is possible and should be coordinated through
-	our public mailing lists.  We use the regular KDE procedures,
-	except that the current stable client has its special CVS branch.
+	Check with the Kolab Project for news.
 
 
 <c>Windows Client
-<q>How can I make Outlook talk to the Kolab Server?
+<q>How can I make Outlook talk to the Kolab1 Server?
 
 <a>
-	You need a proprieatey plug-in called InsightConnector in version 1.x 
-        from a company called Bynari (http://bynari.com).
-	This is proprietary software and you need to aquire a license.
-	Demo versions are available. InsightConnector 2.x are reported to 
-        not working reliably with the Kolab server,
-<p>
-	A second company, konsec.com, announced 
-	to make a similiar plug-in offering in Q2 2004.
+	A plug-in is needed. Kolab1 originally was tested
+	with the proprietary InsightConnector in version 1.x. 
+	It stopped being available later.
+	The Kolab Project most likely has a more
+	uptodate list of available plug-ins.
 <p>
-Currently most success reports are available using the <a href="http://www.toltec.co.za/">Toltec Connector</a>
- from a South African company. Toltec is also offering a proprietary plugin for Outlook.
+	Since it market appearance most success reports came
+	using the proprietary Plug-in Toltec Connector:
+	<a href="http://www.toltec.co.za/">www.toltec.co.za</a>
 
 <p>
 
@@ -146,83 +131,51 @@
 <q>Is there no Free Software Outlook plugin? Will you create one?
 
 <a>
-	We are not aware of an existing Free Software 
-	plug-in for Outlook.
-	<p>
-	Within the Kroupware project we have not been contracted 
-	to create such a plug-in.
+	Within the Kroupware contract we did not create 
+	a Free Software plug-in for Outlook and also had no
+	knowledge of such a development. 
 	<p>
-        "Kervin L. Pierre" <kervin at blueprint-tech.com> announced
-        to work on it and started
-        <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/otlkcon/"
-        >sourceforge.net/projects/otlkcon</a> .
-
-<p>
-Currently the most advanced and active development for a free software plugin for Microsoft MAPI based
-Outlook is done by 
-<a href="http://www.sourcextreme.com">SourceXtreme, Inc.</A>. At the moment they offer commercial Kolab support 
-for North America and a free <a href="http://www.sourcextreme.com/projects/outlook/">MAPI Toolkit</a>. With some more 
-funding this project looks very promissing.
+	At end of the project the most advanced development 
+	for a Free Software plugin for Microsoft MAPI based Outlook 
+	was done by 
+	<a href="http://www.sourcextreme.com">SourceXtreme, Inc.</A>. 
 
 
 <c>Windows Client
-<q>Why aren't you creating a Free Software plug-in for Outlook?
+<q>Why didn't you create a Free Software plug-in for Outlook?
 
 <a>
-	It is a lot of work. Especially because of subtle differences
+	It would have been a lot of work. 
+	Especially because of subtle differences
 	of the various Windows/OL/IE combinations. 
-	Doing a plug-in means tailchasing Microsoft.
-	Serious funding would be needed to persue 
-	a Free Software plug-in for Outlook.
+	Doing a plug-in for Outlook means tailchasing Microsoft.
+	Serious funding would be needed to do that.
 	<p>
-	For several reasons this might not be an optimal strategy.
-	The proprietary plug-in already exists and can be used right away.
-	On the cost side we expect that operating a Kolab Server 
+	For several reasons this did not seem to be an good strategy.
+	The proprietary plug-in already existed and could be used right away.
+	On the cost side we expected that operating a Kolab Server 
 	saves significantly more than the costs for the proprietory
 	plug-in licenses.
 	<p>
-	For the Free Software community this is only a transition step
+	For the Free Software community this would be only a transition step
 	as we ought to have a Free Software solution in the long run 
         and an increasing number of people deploying the Kolab KDE clients.  
-	So if more funding comes available we'd prefer developing
+	So if more funding comes available we prefer developing
 	a Free Software Kolab client for Windows and improve the Kolab Server
 	to further outrun the competition with more innovative features.
 
 <c>Windows Client
-<q> Are there other Kolab clients on Windows than Outlook? Preferably Free Software?
+<q> Where there other Kolab clients on Windows than Outlook? Preferably Free Software?
 
 <a>
-Yes there are other Kolab clients on Windows. You may try the current Kolab webclient which is still under heavy development 
-and which will be fully integrated in future releases of the Kolab solution. 
-
-<p>
-There is also
-<a href="http://www.thekompany.com/projects/aethera/">Aethera: Messaging and Groupware Client</a> from 
-<a href="ttp://www.thekompany.com">theKompany.com</a>.
-
-<p>
-We currently lack an indepth review but first tests look very promissing. Aethera is a cross platform solution 
-available for Win32 and KDE platforms. For a successful installation please read the accompanying documentation.
-
-<p>
-We had some successful tests with experimental versions of
-<a href="http://kde-cygwin.sourceforge.net/"
->KDE libraries running on Cygwin with XFree86</a>.
-Developers eventually might port the KDE Kolab Client
-to this platform. The biggest complained sofar with this solution is usage of resources and speed.
-
-<p>
-There is also a highly experimental
-<a href="http://iidea.pl/~js/qkw/">QT-KDE Wrapper</a> based on the proprietary QT version.
-We do not expect any of this to be ready for production
-use in the foreseeable future, though.
-<p>
+	Yes there were other Kolab clients on Windows. 
+	Check the Kolab Project website for updated information.
 
 <c>Kolab Server
 <q> What do you mean with Scalability?
 <a> 
 
-	The Kolab server is designed with maximal scalability in mind.
+	Kolab was designed with maximal scalability in mind.
 	Basically this means we are targeting possible installations with
 	many thousand and maybe up to millions of users.  In order to achive
 	this we employ a number of technologies but try <em>very</em> hard 
@@ -239,7 +192,7 @@
 		gain high performance and high availability.
 		E.g. use several Postfix MTA's and MX records for HA and HP
 
-	   <li> Don't put unecessary processing on the Kolab server but 
+	   <li> Do not put unecessary processing on the Kolab server but 
 		use the clients instead. Basically this means that with 
 		the number of the clients the available processing power 
 		also increases
@@ -340,44 +293,30 @@
 <q> Why did you choose OpenPKG rpms. (I prefer, Fedora rpms, SUSE rpm, Debian deb....)
 
 <a>
-We think that <a href="http://www.openpkg.org/">OpenPKG</a> is currently the best solution in order 
-to be able to support many platforms 
-simultaneously. With the help of the OpenPKG people (especially Thomas Lotterer) we now can offer
-<a href="ftp://ftp.zfos.org/brew/kolab/BIN/">binary packages</a> for 
-<p>
-<a href="ftp://ftp.zfos.org/brew/kolab/BIN/kolab-20040217-2.0.0/ix86-suse9.0">SUSE 9.0</a>, 
-<a href="ftp://ftp.zfos.org/brew/kolab/BIN/kolab-20040217-2.0.0/ix86-suse8.2">SuSE 8.2</a>, 
-<a href="ftp://ftp.zfos.org/brew/kolab/BIN/kolab-20040217-2.0.0/ix86-rhl9">Redhat 9</a>,
-<a href="ftp://ftp.zfos.org/brew/kolab/BIN/kolab-20040217-2.0.0/ix86-rhel3">Redhat Enterprise Linux 3</a>, 
-<a href="ftp://ftp.zfos.org/brew/kolab/BIN/kolab-20040217-2.0.0/ix86-gentoo1.4.3">Gentoo 1.4.3</a>, 
-<a href="ftp://ftp.zfos.org/brew/kolab/BIN/kolab-20040217-2.0.0/ix86-freebsd5.2">FreeBSD 5.2</a>,
-<a href="ftp://ftp.zfos.org/brew/kolab/BIN/kolab-20040217-2.0.0/ix86-freebsd4.9">FreeBSD 4.9</a>, 
-<a href="ftp://ftp.zfos.org/brew/kolab/BIN/kolab-20040217-2.0.0/ix86-fedora1">Fedora 1</a>, 
-<a href="ftp://ftp.zfos.org/brew/kolab/BIN/kolab-20040217-2.0.0/ix86-debian3.1">Debian 3.1</a>, 
-<a href="ftp://ftp.zfos.org/brew/kolab/BIN/kolab-20040217-2.0.0/ix86-debian3.0">Debian 3.0</a>, and 
-<a href="ftp://ftp.zfos.org/brew/kolab/BIN/kolab-20040217-2.0.0/ix86-debian2.2">Debian 2.2</a>.
-<p>
-Another keay feature of basing Kolab on OpenPKG is that the OpenPKG team is well known for high 
-quality and timely security fixes. Please have a look at the OpenPKG <a href="http://www.openpkg.org/security.html">
-security</a> page.
+	We though that <a href="http://www.openpkg.org/">www.OpenPKG.org</a> 
+	is currently the best solution in order 
+	to be able to support many platforms simultaneously. 
+	With the help of the OpenPKG people (especially Thomas Lotterer) 
+	we could offer binary packages for a lot of plattforms.
 
 <p>
-More and very helpful information about <a href="http://www.openpkg.org">OpenPKG</a> and its packageing 
-philosophy can be learned from the OpenPKG <a href="http://www.openpkg.org/facts.html">Fact sheet</a>.
+	Another keay feature of basing Kolab1 on OpenPKG is that the OpenPKG
+	team is well known for high quality and timely security fixes. 
+
 <p>
-Last but not least all creators of distributions (e.g. SUSE, Redhat, Debian, FreeBSD etc.) are encouraged to follow 
-the pratice of Mandrake in creating native packages for the Kolab server. 
-<a href="http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/10.0/features/#6">Mandrake 10.0</a> contains 
-a full featured Kolab server already.
+	Mandrake was the first distributor to pick up Kolab and make
+	directly supported packages for their GNU/Linux distribution.
+	<a href="http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/10.0/features/#6">Mandrake 10.0</a> 
+	contains a full featured Kolab1 Server.
 
 <c>Kolab Server
 
 <q> How to make OpenLDAP fast on large installations
 <a>
-Put the following into your crontab on the server:
-<p>
-<verbatim>00 6  * * *     root /kolab/sbin/slapindex -b dc=foo,dc=bar</verbatim>
-<p>
-This increases the performance on queries dramatically on large installations!
-<p>
-Thanks to Stefan Lang for providing this FAQ entry.
+	Put the following into your crontab on the server:
+	<p>
+	<verbatim>00 6  * * *     root /kolab/sbin/slapindex -b dc=foo,dc=bar</verbatim>
+	<p>
+	This increases the performance on queries dramatically 
+	on large installations!  
+	Thanks to Stefan Lang for providing this FAQ entry.





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