Koozali.org: home of the SME Server
Legacy Forums => Experienced User Forum => Topic started by: SSBN on September 10, 2003, 12:41:14 AM
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I would like to make sum changes to the look of SME server. I am in the proses of starting to sell it as an alternative to windows 2000. There are two main things I would like to do.
1: Have the install of SME have mailfront twiggy on the cd and installed on the first install. I found sum information here http://www.e-smith.org/docs/howto/contrib/e-smith-custom-iso.html on how to do it. If there is any more information out there and could any of you post it.
2: The next thing I would like to change is the look of it. Instead of it saying the developer unsupported release I would like to put my company name and contact info there. I would also like to add sum of the info the splash screen if as all possible. Can any of you point me in the right direction? I did a search on the forms but didn’t get any results.
BTW I use SME 5.6
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first thing i would do is talk to the people of e-smith/mitel.
as i know they have the copyright for SME and the only right to sell this product.
if i'm wrong, please someone correct me...
cheers klaus
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Klaus, I think you're missing the point of Free Software. First, the vast majority of the code involved in SME was not written by Mitel/e-smith; they just took existing packages and made them work well together and configure easily. I'm not trying to trivialize their work; it was (and continues to be) a major undertaking, and one which they've done very well.
AFAIK, all the e-smith-specific stuff in the unsupported developer release has been released under the GPL, which means that anybody can distribute it, for free or for a price, so long as they also distribute it under the GPL (which means, among other things, they must make the source available, and they can't stop their customers from redistributing it).
However, Mitel presumably owns the name--if you make changes (or don't) and then start selling copies, you probably can't call it the "Mitel Networks SME Server". You'd need to come up with your own name.
In short, it should be perfectly legal for somebody to distribute modified copies of the unsupported release, so long as he didn't try to pass it off as Mitel's product, and so long as he complies with the GPL. Of course, if anybody from Mitel were to express a contrary opinion, I'd be inclined to pay attention. Of course, nobody here is my client, and none of this is legal advice--you want legal advice, hire a lawyer.
Now, to the meat of the questions, I don't know about the first one at all, and the second isn't very clear--what "splash screen" is being referred to, for example? If you mean the text console config utility, it's a perl script at /sbin/e-smith/console. For the web manager, /etc/e-smith/web/panels/manager looks like a good place to start.
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check out the thread http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=16054.msg61942#msg61942
Lots of people add their company logo and under GPL I think it is quite acceptable to modify the package as long as you include the GPL licence. I add lots of additions to the servermanager and include my logo but out of courtesy I include that this is a modification of the Mitel package under GPL.
Regards
Brian