[Kolab-devel] New with Kolab (Hello all)

[Jonathan Carter]

Hi Kolabbers

I recently joined Impi Linux[1], a company that predominantly provides 
desktop and server solutions based on free software to local government 
organisations.

I also work with Stphan Buys, who has done quite a bit of Kolab work in 
the past and has recently re-introduced himself to the list[2].

We're quite excited about Kolab and we plan to use it widely in a 
variety of configurations. Ideally, we would want to use native Debian 
packages, since our distribution is based on Ubuntu[3]. The most current 
Debian packages[4] is currently at version 1.9, and we require Kolab 
version 2.1 as our clients require new functionality.

According to the Kolab roadmap[5], version 2.1 is expected to be 
released in April 2007. We will be implementing the release candidate 
versions until the final release is ready.

I would appreciate your input on our ideas of implementing Kolab. I'm 
quite new to Kolab, but I intend to get more involved under the guidance 
of Stephan, and as workload allows. Our current primary focus is 
figuring out how we're going to install and upgrade Kolab on our 
production servers. Presently, we're installing Kolab 2.1-RC1 on our 
servers, using the OpenPKG installer.

We're considering a few options to get it into native Debian packages. 
We don't really want Kolab in /kolab since it's not FHS'sy[6] place to 
put it, and upstream would never approve of it either. We're also 
considering using the current Debian versions of kolab-cyrus, etc, and 
simply packaging the newest Kolab specific packages (kolabd, 
kolab-resource-handlers, kolab-webadmin and kolabadmin), although that 
comes with its own complications. From what I've read so far, it seems 
that it might be best to use the OpenPKG installation until Debian 
upstream has created native packages. I'll be posting a similar message 
to their list[7] and provide input, perhaps I can help fast-track things 
by providing assistance there, I hope that some of the Debian packagers 
are on this list.

Any advice on how we should implement and migrate from one type of 
installation to another, would be appreciated.

Thanks for your patience, and by the way, Kolab rocks!

-Jonathan

[1] http://www.impilinux.co.za
[2] http://kolab.org/pipermail/kolab-devel/2007-February/006457.html
[3] http://www.ubuntu.com
[4] 
http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl?keywords=kolab&searchon=names&subword=1&version=unstable&release=all
[5] http://kolab.org/roadmap.html
[6] http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html
[7] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-kolab-devel

-- 
Jonathan Carter
Distribution Architect - Impi Linux
Cellular: +27 78 108 2588
Fax: 086 505 9808
Jabber: jonathan at jabber.org
VoIP: sip://jonathan.carter@ekiga.net
1st Floor, Wembley Building,  The Campus, 57 Sloane Street, Bryanston
http://www.impilinux.co.za