Need Understanding of Community VS Subscription Version

spikerguy

Hello Everyone,

I am new here as I met your team at FosDem 2020 and was quite interested in being a part of the Kopano Community as from what I see they’re doing a good job for the community and everyone using kopano groupware.

Now back to my question.
I would like to know the difference between Community version and Subscription. On one of the german blog I read that subscription version is the stable version while community release is the nightly version which i assume is unstable versions(I guess I am wrong).

So can someone explain me the right difference between Community release and the subscription?

Also Where can I get Stable Community release to package for the distro I am used to instead of using either of the officially support distro?

Thanks.

fbartels

Hi @fkardame,

the builds you can find at https://download.kopano.io/community/ are all nighty builds. You can find the following description on the page itself:

The downloads you find here are our <i>nightly builds</i>! Essentially the <b>development version</b> with the latest code and newest features - which in many cases are <b>untested</b>. If you are using these builds, we'd love to hear your feedback on new features and bugreports. If you have a Kopano subscription and you're looking for a stable and tested version, you can either visit the <a href="https://download.kopano.io/supported/">supported</a> section, or go to the <a href="https://portal.kopano.com">portal</a> and click downloads. You can also use the portal to generate a repository configuration file, which makes installing and updating your systems very easy.

The supported releases for customer are build from release branches of the individual repositories https://stash.kopano.io/dashboard. Releases always have a tag to reference them, but not everything that is tagged as a release will also be released to customers.

A good indication when a release has been deemed fit for customer is that the changelog document at https://documentation.kopano.io/kopano_changelog/ has been updated.

spikerguy

@fbartels said in Need Understanding of Community VS Subscription Version:

https://portal.kopano.co

Hey,
Thanks for the information. I will go through it and I would also like to know if I can package it for Manjaro/Arch Linux as I have good hands on for it instead of debian. I am already a contributor there for Manjaro Arm Team.

Update: I have checked the stash, I see the release branches are separated so I can make use of the release branch as it says it s QA’d branch. This is a nice way to maintain.

Thanks.

fbartels

@fkardame said in Need Understanding of Community VS Subscription Version:

would also like to know if I can package it for Manjaro/Arch Linux

Sure, why not?

There were already a few arch users on this forum in the past I’d recommend to check them out for not having to start from scratch.

spikerguy

@fbartels said in Need Understanding of Community VS Subscription Version:

There were already a few arch users on this forum in the past I’d recommend to check them out for not having to start from scratch.

Yes, I have tried to contact them to seek permission from their old work. Also studying all the dependencies needed for kopano packages.

I see all the kopano packages are under AGPL so we can repackage it all with the right credits.

Just to confirm so I don’t invest time is the wrong direction, There is no Locks in any feature or any limits in the community version right? As I don’t like surprises later after investing all the time and effort.

My Plan is to get kopano to work for SME’s where they can host their own Servers on power ARM SBC’s as the ones we have for development are quite powerful enough to host a server for an organisation of 30-50 employees. All my work will be open sourced and contributed back to Kopano and Manjaro ARM Community.

Thank You Once again for maintaining Kopano as Open Sourced Project.

fbartels

@fkardame said in Need Understanding of Community VS Subscription Version:

There is no Locks in any feature or any limits in the community version right?

yes, everything we do is open source. There are no closed source code portions to unlock additional features.

@fkardame said in Need Understanding of Community VS Subscription Version:

get kopano to work for SME’s

The one thing to have in mind here is that we only support our own builds so if one of these does require our help we may be unable to help (even if they buy a subscription) unless they switch to our builds.

spikerguy

@fbartels said in Need Understanding of Community VS Subscription Version:

The one thing to have in mind here is that we only support our own builds so if one of these does require our help we may be unable to help (even if they buy a subscription) unless they switch to our builds.

Is there no paid support only? other than subscription?
If not then the only support would be the community support I guess.

I think the smarter was for me to package is to use the release branch.

fbartels

@fkardame said in Need Understanding of Community VS Subscription Version:

Is there no paid support only?

there is only paid support for our packaging.

@fkardame said in Need Understanding of Community VS Subscription Version:

use the release branch.

Yes, I would recommend the same. Specifically you should look to use https://stash.kopano.io/projects/KC/repos/kopanocore/browse?at=refs%2Fheads%2Fkc-9.x. This has not yet been released to customers but is currently in the process of being stabilised and hopefully released soon.