OStatic

For the past few weeks, off and on, I've heard some low-level, excited buzzing about iFolder. What is it? Think of it as an open source Dropbox service that lives on your servers under your jurisdiction, with a few added perks.

iFolder isn't new, per se, but it hasn't seen an updated source code release since 2007. Late last week, Novell, which sponsors the iFolder project, announced that iFolder 3.7.2 client and server packages -- as well as source code -- were available for download. The new release runs on Mac, Windows (including Vista) and Linux 32- and 64- bit environments. The push is now on to keep iFolder a very community-driven initiative.

When two of the X.org folks get involved in writing an email system out of frustration, it's safe to say that email clients need a kick in the pants. Carl Worth, with some help from Keith Packard, have announced Notmuch, a search-based email system for handling large volumes of mail.

Packard says it?s a sad commentary on the Linux desktop that the most important feature for many people using Linux has no credible GUI application. One might quibble with Packard for singling out Linux. GUI mail clients across all platforms have really failed to evolve as well as, say, the Web browser. While the current crop of GUI clients work fine for processing smaller amounts of email, people who process hundreds of messages daily start seeing pain points in the GUI clients pretty quickly.

Concentric, a leader in web and e-mail hosting services and a sponsor of OStatic, is offering a discount to OStatic readers, starting today. New customers, and existing customers who purchase additional services, get a 10% discount on Managed Server and Managed Backup services. There are many additional exciting offers for OStatic readers from Concentric coming soon! The company specializes in hosted Exchange services, e-mail security and services, managed backup, and more.

Hosted site, e-mail and security services can free many people from administration hassles that they don't want to be burdened by. In a sponsored partnership with OStatic, Concentric is launching a dedicated microsite that will provide articles, whitepapers, and more information on efficiencies that can be gained through hosted services, so readers can learn more about these offerings. Additional promotions for OStatic readers will also be featured here. You can find the Concentric microsite here.

With all the talk about cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS), where does hosted email fit in and what is it all about? While it's easy to rely on one of the free email services available for small businesses, a fully managed hosted option takes all the guesswork and hassle out of one of the most important tools a successful business needs -- reliable email service.

There are several advantages to using hosted email, and chief among them is the predictable and comparatively low cost of services like Concentric's Hosted Exchange. An in-house deployment of Microsoft Exchange 2007 along with the associated costs of purchasing new hardware and software can easily cost a mid-size organization hundreds of dollars even before the first email is sent. Add to that administrative costs, server downtime, and system monitoring, and the total cost of ownership quickly skyrockets.

We've been following the beta releases of Mozilla's e-mail application Thunderbird 3 pretty closely over the last few months. It's a terrific free, cross-platform, open source alternative to the native e-mail apps that come bundled with Windows and Mac OS X. Thunderbird 3 also integrates nicely with Gmail, making it a great option for people who want to stick with their Web-based email but want the additional features of a desktop email app.

Mozilla released Thunderbird 3 Beta 4 this week, and it sports more than 200 changes over the past beta release, including new search tools, tabbed email messages, and better IMAP folder synchronization. I've been playing around with the new beta version for a couple of days now and I like what I've seen so far.

When I heard that Funambol was rolling out an open source mobile cloud sync service for mobile VoIP users, I'll be honest -- I wasn't thinking about the open code, or about how much easier it would make contacting people worldwide over a diverse array of devices. I immediately thought of my dad.

He could very well be just like your dad, or mom, or you. He likes gadgets, and if the gadgets beep, flash, or vibrate at a random enough interval to make my mom grind her teeth or clutch her ears, he likes them even more. However, he's got two things working against him -- he's not blessed in the patience department (like my mom, it would seem) and he's got arthritic hands to the point of immobility. As such, his work-issued Blackberry wasn't nearly as useful as his old Palm Pilot when it came to being an electronic memory. It was merely a phone he couldn't dial all that easily.

He was delighted when I showed him Skype, and was flattered when all these young women he didn't know kept calling. The novelty gave way to annoyance when he realized he must know some people on Skype, but finding and connecting with them took patience.

New mVoIP users start with a blank address book, and many mVoIP services can't sync existing contact information from cell phones or other address books. Funambol's mVoIP enables service providers to allow syncing from address books and social networks -- so that an address change made anywhere (say, a contact's Facebook profile or the Funambol web portal) updates all associated devices.

Even though Web-based email in enterprise is touted as the next best thing since sliced bread, it's definitely not right for all companies. There's an inherent risk in moving all your email to the cloud -- data loss and security issues rank at the top of the list -- so many businesses tend to stick with expensive commercial email software management software like Microsoft Exchange.

Unfortunately, the interface of Web-based email tends to have a certain charm that's hard to overlook. Threaded conversations, advanced search options, and all sorts of other things make services like Gmail seem very attractive.

Linux-based email management hardware appliance and software vendor AtMail released a new version of its flagship product, AtMail 6.0, that aims to blend the best features of Web mail with the security of in-house email.

Ah, the open source business model, and the inevitable question that always accompanies its mention -- How can you make money if you give the product away? Then come the raised eyebrows when you mention support and training services. It does work, of course. Any business, whether it makes open or proprietary software products, or noise makers and party hats, needs to diligently think of ways to make its products more useful and appealing to its current -- and potential -- markets.

One of the best ways to do this is to just listen. What are current users (or those who'd like to, but...) asking for? Funambol is no stranger to asking its users how they feel about the business and its services, and seriously considering the feedback that is received. Customer demand is in large part why Funambol now offers hosting services for its commercial Carrier Edition software.

In my inbox yesterday, along with the notes from my mom, forwards from relatives and friends who never really write, and a wide variety of great deals on fake watches, I discovered a press release from Funambol. That in and of itself isn't unusual, but what the open source mobile sync and push solution company was reporting is remarkable on several levels.

Many open source software companies are seeing increases in revenue, stronger migration rates and a general upswing in business thanks to the rather anemic economy. You don't need to write about open source to see this -- it's readily apparent to anyone skimming tech-related headlines. Funambol's announcement certainly mentioned the economy, and gave some truly impressive figures surrounding the project's growth -- but they weren't in relation to undeniably important financial gains. The jaw-dropping growth is happening somewhere that's even more critical in the long-term: the community.

Open source collaboration software and support provider Open-Xchange announced today that it would offer its webmail module free of charge to qualifying partners. The Webmail4Free promotion is open to companies in the telecommunication industry (web hosting providers and ISPs) as well as non-profit and educational institutions (universities, government agencies, and other organizations granted non-profit status). Additional qualifications and terms depend on the number of accounts required by the interested organization.

While choosing software simply because it's low-cost (or no cost) isn't recommended, and the promotion is (naturally) designed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement, companies and non-profits interested in deploying open source mail, groupware and information management solutions might want to take a closer look at Open-Xchange's offer.