[SOGo] ANN: Fosdem and future of SOGo!

["SOGo Reporter"]

Fosdem and Future of SOGo! ANNOUNCEMENT The Future Of SOGo Dear SOGo community, On the weekend of February 1st and 2nd, we attended FOSDEM and it was delightful. It was a pleasure connecting with so many of you, both regular faces and newcomers. We definitely enjoy the experience and hope to do it again next year! During the event, we shared some exciting news: we are embarking on the development of the new version, simply called SOGo 6! WHY A SOGo 6? As you may know, SOGo has been around for 20 years, and its current technology stack - AngularJS for the frontend and Objective-C for the backend - has become outdated and difficult to maintain. As a consequence, it is difficult and time-consuming to implement new features and even the simplest bug is a headache to investigate and fix. The existing architecture also makes it hard to introduce enhancements that weren't originally anticipated and scheduled. Additionally, these older technologies are completely repulsive for anyone that would like to contribute, refraining the community contribution For all these reasons, SOGo 6 will be a complete overhaul with a modern stack: Backend: Python Frontend: React.js What to expect with SOGo 6? All the core features you know will remain: email, calendars, and address books with collaborative capabilities. Synchronization with software like Thunderbird and Outlook will also be preserved. And of course, SOGo will continue to be open-source and free. We also aim to make the transition from SOGo 5 to SOGo 6 as seamless as possible. Migration scripts and detailed documentation will be provided to ensure a smooth upgrade. We are at the very beginning and we are making a complete review of all the features already available, and the ones requested by the community on the mailing list and in our bug trackers. Our goal is to release SOGo 6 next year, though there's a lot of work ahead. We'll keep you updated throughout the process. We will get back to you next time around the beginning of April to share our progress. What about SOGO 5? The current version will still be maintained but only for bug fixes and patches The upcoming 5.12 release has been slightly reorganized to align with our new direction, so some roadmap features may be missing. Additionally, a DevContainer will be introduced to simplify SOGo development. ----------- We are very excited for this next chapter of SOGo and its community and hope you are as well!. A quick note: We plan to leave X in 2025, so we invite you to follow us on Mastodon instead! SOGo Team What is SOGo SOGo is a free and modern scalable groupware server. It offers shared calendars, address books and emails through your favorite Web browser or by using a native client such as Mozilla Thunderbird and Lightning, Apple Calendar and Address Book (Mac OS X and iOS) and Microsoft Outlook. SOGo is standard-compliant and supports CalDAV, CardDAV and reuses existing IMAP, SMTP and database servers - making the solution easy to deploy and interoperable with many applications. SOGo features: Scalable architecture suitable for deployments from dozen to many thousand users Rich, responsible Web-based interface aligned with Google Material Design guidelines Improved integration with Mozilla Thunderbird and Lightning by using the SOGo Connector and the SOGo Integrator Two-way synchronization support with any Microsoft ActiveSync-capable device (Apple iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry 10) or Outlook 2013/2016/365 Excellent native integration with Apple software (OS X and iOS) and Android-based devices and many more! SOGo and our connectors are completely free. Try Online Available accounts: sogo1, sogo2 and sogo3. Their password is sogo. Helping SOGo is a collaborative effort in order to create the best Free and Open Source groupware solution. There are multiple ways you can contribute to the project: Documentation reviews, enhancements and translations Write test cases - if you know Python, join in! Feature requests or by sharing your ideas Participate to the discussion in mailing lists Patches for bugs or enhancements Provide new translations Feel free to send us your questions. You can also post them to the SOGo mailing list. Getting Support For any questions, do not hesitate to contact us by writing to supp...@sogo.nu Customer support packages for SOGo are also available.