[Kolab-devel] Kolab 2.0 Release Coordination

[Martin Konold]

Am Donnerstag, 8. Juli 2004 10:28 schrieb Richard Bos:

Hi Richard,

> Try to install kolab in e.g. /usr or /opt and have it use the applications
> that are provided by the different linux providers.  You won't be that
> happy anymore.

Beeing able to use the provided binaries by the distribution vendors is 
extremly difficult and error prone.

Look, Kolab is not only about providing the necessary binaries but also about 
makeing these binaries working together.

1. All binaries must match the Kolab requirements with regards to versions, 
compile time options and features (e.g. some binaries require a Kolab 
specific patch). The requirements of Kolab are not met in every respect by 
the distribution vendors.

2. Kolab provides a sophisticated method for administration of Kolab servers 
running in a clustered multi-location environment from a single place (e.g. 
the Kolab WebGUI). Kolab depends very heavily on storing the configuration in 
a LDAP repository. This approach is very different from the distribution 
specific technologies of the day e.g. YaST2 or linuxconf.

3. The current approach allows us to support Kolab on many platforms. Due the 
the very complex nature of Kolab using many different opensource packages it 
would be impossible for us to support more than one platform (e.g. Debian).  

4. It is the job of the distribution vendors to integrate OSS into their 
offerings. E.g. Mandrake did a very good job in this for Kolab 1.0. The 
distribution vendors know their stuff much better than we dare to claim. Also 
this is the only way to prevent that updates (e.g. security updates) don't 
break existing Kolab installation. How to blame a distribution if the use 
case (using the package for Kolab) is not known to them.

5. Last but not least we believe that our approach is superiour for such a 
task. Using OpenPKG was IMHO a big success(*) sofar. The OpenPKG people 
provide excellent support and quality for us. 

Yours,
-- martin
P.S.: (*) Of course there are some aspects I am not so happy about but which 
are currently beeing worked on. OpenPKG has a track record of solving issues 
in a timely and predictable manner. E.g. more than a year ago fsl was a pain 
but it is fixed now. The static compiling causes more problems for me than it 
solves and the start/stop scripts are also not too much to my liking. Having 
apt for OpenPKG would be perfect.....

P.P.S.: Richard: Would it help you if we would roll a complete Kolab 
installation in a single big rpm/dpkg and then simply conflict with existing 
httpd, smtpd....?

Dipl.-Phys. Martin Konold

e r f r a k o n
Erlewein, Frank, Konold & Partner - Beratende Ingenieure und Physiker
Nobelstrasse 15, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
fon: 0711 67400963, fax: 0711 67400959
email: martin.konold at erfrakon.de