Trying to get a picture of Kopano overall

Donty

Hi All,

We have been using Zimbra for well over a decade and looking for options to move away. Obviously Kopano has come up as a top suggestion time and again. Mostly the suggestions are from people who have read about it rather than those who have installed and used it so I wanted to hear more from the frontline ;-)

Some of the points we have below could be an advantage for some so this is not pejorative, it is really just to make sure we are not missing something and have not got the wrong end of the stick. Can someone clarify or confirm what we understand about Kopano so far?

MAPI based core drawn from partial MAPI specs and normal reverse engineering practices to keep up with any MS changes. Essentially very DB focused (not how Zimbra was, so wanted to be clear!)
No administration console, no web admin access, no admin overview - only direct command line control for each separate service or process .cfg.
No included MTA but Postfix recommendation and integration into Kopano via recommended configs which should allow MTA substitution.
No stable open source repositories from Kopano, nightlies only. The pay for supported version has to use Kopano repos.
Kopano One - sort of wrapped installation or guided process for all parts of the Kobano offering with delivery focused primarily on instances/vm/containers of some kind. Only available on subsription, to replace Kopano Groupware and sub projects as focus for the business.
Newest core version recently released was One and not available yet on Groupware supported repos.

Our key desire is to avoid the Zimbra debacle of creep away from open source and make sure we understand the user and admin experience of using it better.

Love the idea of supporting and engaging with an open source groupware collaborative project so want to be more confident it is not going in the wrong direction.

Thanks

D

bhuisman

Hi @Donty

Awesome that you’re looking into Kopano as a candidate to replace your current server! I’m not entirely sure what you mean to ask with all your points, so perhaps you could clarify if you feel the answer is not really covering the question.

The MAPI storage layer is fully implemented - the actual data is stored primarily in a database (attachments and search index are stored on disk).
Kopano does not come with it’s own web administration console. There are a few partners that do offer this (for example Univention). There are many command-line utilities (e.g. kopano-admin, kopano-storeadm, kopano-backup) etc. that an administrator would use to get an overview of what is going on at the system.
Yes, we do not ship our own MTA but offer various integration options. Postfix is the recommended way.
At this moment, there are nightly builds available for the community. Tested binaries with access to support requires a paid subscription.
While Kopano One could perfectly be used in containers/vms/instances(?), this is not it’s only goal. It can be installed on supported operating systems (Debian 10 at the moment, RHEL8 is currently in ‘the works’). It is geared towards easier installation and maintenance in single server installations. Kopano Groupware, WebApp and the other projects will continue to be developed/maintained and can be used with a subscription as well.
While we have been focused on getting Kopano One (with Groupware Core 9) out the door for the past few months, Groupware Core 9 will also make it’s way into the supported repositories.

Hope this helps in your selection process!