Topic: Lycoris to take over contribs.org

[RonM]

I moved some "next release" wishes from the Forums section to the Next release section.

[brookes]

Hey all,

I support two linux distro's (and have for the last couple of years) and that is Lycoris (bought and paid for) and SME (by trying to contribute to this community). I think this move will help SME and for that I am grateful to Lycoris.

I am hopeful this "alliance" between the Lycoris community and the contribs org will grow the server product.

Stephan.

[dickmorrell]

Read Jo Cheek's replies on here and all I can tell you from my own experience is that as a friend I've known and worked with at Linuxcare and prior to Redmond Linux and the evolution of Lycoris Jo has never let anyone down and he ALWAYS listens to people. That is a skill.

About three years ago I remember having a late night 2am (UK timezone) phonecall with Jo talking about how I was able to make large revenue from "reseller programmes" to shore up the investment I'd made in SmoothWall and also to foster a sense of belief and ability in distributing opensource products worldwide - a programme that netted $3m+ in 2 yrs for my cause and Jo took all the points on board and gave it his own polished spin. He's a professional - and he's worked at Microsoft and Linuxcare with the best in the business. The associations he brings to SME is huge and beneficial - the likes of Andrew Tridgell and Jeremy Allison, people in the Kernel Team and Apache teams, the stalwarts of the LUG movement that we've both worked with and the experience and pain of .com boom and bust.

Trust me that if there is one guy who aided by the community understands what SME is about its Jo. No idea about the deal with RSI - can't comment, RSI was a box shifter with some good ideas - no idea on the actual worth or value to anyone and certainly apart from a virtual server nothing made it back to SME. The lack of feedback into SME alarmed me but thats life. But thats a good thing now - Jo Cheek is back in his natural element which is all about "making things interface and gel".

Thats a good thing - he's a do'er and an achiever - oh and he's also a workaholic who fathered three kids while starting a company, holding down a job and writing a book.

So people this is positive stuff - lets sit and watch what happens and contribute when asked.

Richard

[D3M0N]

Hey everyone! I thought that this would be a good time to introduce myself over here as Rus, Robbie, Spaaz, etc.. has.

I am the Graphics Designers over at Lycoris. I am also a moderator at the Lycoris Greenhouse forums, so you'll see me in there quite a bit. I'm 14, a Freshman in highschool - I've been with Lycoris for about a year and a half now. I joined the community back in January 2003 and quickly became "NDAed" in May 2003, just before my 13th birthday. Enough about me now.

I had not heard of contribs.org or the SME product before I heard of the plans for us to team up. I must say that this is very cool and I'm sure this will work out to the benefit of everyone! If you'd like to contact me for any reason you can e-mail me directly at bauch@lycoris.com

Brandon

[1111]

It is good to see a commercial investment in the product. It is obvious that Lycoris is looking to integrate the desktop product with the SME server and produce an end to end software solution for business. This provides a distinction between the Mitel 6000 MAS and the Lycoris product.

I think the core questions concerning current users are these:

Will Lycoris adopt the position that Mitel took and offer a near identical feature set in the unsupported version as the commercial version? 'Blades' and support come to mind as the crucial differences. Lack of direct integration with Lycoris desktop solutions appears to be another feature to be deleted from the community version.

Will Lycoris utilise the community version as a development base for future commercial versions as Mitel did and continue to add features to the community release without limiting the use of the community release, such as usage of three months?

If Lycoris intends to adopt a similar approach to Mitel then the obvious question is this: how does Lycoris see itself as being able to sustain the effort? Mitel couldn't and cut the community version adrift. I'm sure the magic word 'money' was a crucial factor in Mitel's choice.

Obviously, it's a corporate gamble for Lycoris to take on Contribs and Lycoris can cut the SME server loose anytime for little damage. However, if the concept of acquiring a community is a critical component then I suggest that unless there is a marked similarity between the commercial and community product then the community will vanish.

[SalaTar]

One XXXXXX distrib to another ...joy oh joy




running away as fast and hard as I can


(Note: This post has been edited to remove unacceptable language from it.  The poster has been banned from these forums. -Jeff Coleman)

[pfloor]

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[wallyrp]

Good Evening,

Ok, I'm a redneck here and words mean things. When the word "owner" is used when referring to posts on the forums, this to me means that I "own" this post. As most of you are aware, I put forward ideas and other suggestions as to the possible funding of contribs.org and other organizational ideas in the past. One of my ideas was to provide the forums on a sort of "technet" CD for offline viewing as well as the contribution files. Since the "ownership" of the forums was never fully clarified (if it was, I must be blind or not looking in the rights spot), that may have been the reason for the "no-go" on the setting up of a "technet" CD.

I agree with the "BAD BAD BAD" idea of just up and moving over without any community notification. The purchase of the domain contribs.org didn't have anything to do with the community so this "BAD BAD BAD" idea doesn't apply there. Where I believe the reference applies is in the SME server distro. I haven't really seen a clear posting in regards to the copyright issues that surround the SME server. The possible change, if it hasn't already happened, in the logos on the SME server ISO without community agreement.

I am currently in a state of flux in regards to SME. I've been an avid user since v3.x. I would really like to see other distros of SME come out to allow for competition, choice, and innovation.

It feels like sitting in the saddle with the horse being yanked from below ya.

[pfloor]

[Post erased by pfloor]

[D3M0N]

The logo is another issue. If it was never copyrighted, it belongs to no one (or maybe everyone). If it was copyrighted (which I doubt that it was due to the lack of the "copyright" or "registered trademark" symbol) than the owner of the copyright needs to transfer the rights or make Lycoris stop using it.

I am not sure about the copyright situation, but I do know that the logo has been redone by Lycoris. The logo while using the same idea as the last, has been changed.

[wallyrp]

Good Morning,

Ok, hear hear, I'm not complaining about Lycoris taking over, I'm discussing, in my opinion, the process.

Again, I am focusing solely on the SME portion of this whole "process." Everyone discusses the lack of support for contribs.org and all the "screaming" about any proposed leadership. I would have fallen into any "leadership" proposed by contribs.org but nothing was done. No backbone was presented. Again, I go back to my statement about contribs.org being an asset of Jeff Coleman. He had sole discretion in the direction of the domain contribs.org but I, as a member of contribs.org was not given the opportunity to give permission for another company to publish my postings. To quote the user agreement in regards to postings:

"While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent the webmaster, administrator and moderators cannot be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised."

In my opinion, the forums should not have been included in the transfer of the contribs.org domain to lycoris without consent from the members that posted. Granted, some of the members that posted may be unreachable and "statute of limitation," for lack of better terminology, may be over.

Now, moving on, it's a done deal, I may be crying over spilt milk, but without any discussion and opinions being presented, who knows what will happen next time.

[pfloor]

[Post erased by pfloor]

[wallyrp]

Good Afternoon,

Okidoky.

[pfloor]

[Post erased by pfloor]

[guest22]

Hi all,

@Paul:
very well put, thanks.

@Wally:
good comments, thanks.

For the record on the 'logo';
The original author/artist will always have copyright on it automatically UNLESS otherwise licenced. In contribs.org case contribs.org received the full copyright in writing.

Cheers,
RequestedDeletion