Stylite's EGroupware development (codebasis)

Ralf_Becker_6 2009-03-15 08:42:35 UTC #1

This is a statement I send to the German list in reply to an allegation
that Stylite forked EGroupware:

The code Stylite uses in it’s hosting and soon will offer as packages
consists of two parts:

a) EGroupware code which is developed by Stylite and other project
members in trunk. Stylite packages a stable compilation of that for
it’s customers. All that software is GPL and will be included in the
next public EGroupware release. (I’m off cause aware: even if I coded
95% of a module, because of the 5% not from me, I dont have the right to
change the license.) We respect the copyrights of the other EGroupware
developers and the GPL license.

b) Stylite will develop new modules, which will be only available under
a commercial license, either in our hosting or in the Stylite packages.
That unfortunately necessary to finance the development (I’m just naming
the failed document management call). This modules will only communicate
via certain interfaces (eg. the API) with the rest of EGroupware.

All bugfixes and development Stylite is doing in the general EGroupware
code will be done in trunk or for bugfixes ported to the concerned
release branch (e.g. 1.6). Everyone can publicly follow that in the
changelog (www.egroupware.org/changelog). We are not going to change
that! We will publish a public EGroupware release every 1-2 years, as
we’ve done it in the past.

Stylite thinks to archive this way a maximum for and with the project
and to reach a stable economical basis, which is compulsory for a
continuation of EGroupware.

There is NO split or fork between Stylite and EGroupware. Stylite is and
stays the leading power behind the EGroupware development!

Ralf

Ralf Becker
Director Software Development

Stylite GmbH
[open style of IT]

Morschheimer Strasse 15
67292 Kirchheimbolanden

fon +49 (0) 6352 70629-0
fax +49 (0) 6352 70629-30
mailto: rb@stylite.de

www.stylite.de
www.egroupware.org

Geschäftsführer Andre Keller, Nigel John Vickers,
Gudrun K. Müller und Ralf Becker
Registergericht Kaiserslautern HRB 12087

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Ralf_Becker_6 2009-03-15 09:46:15 UTC #2

That’s an reply to the question of Lutz Falkenburg (irrsinn.de gmbh)

Warum werden Fixings und Erweiterungen der Entwickler der anderen
Länder in denen eGW sehr stark vorangetrieben wird nicht von euch
(oder wem auch immer) eingebunden? Soweit ich weiß können etliche
"Ableger" der französischen eGW sehr viel mehr als die Deutsche?!

Dieses Thema geht meines Erachtens noch völlig unter. eGW ist ja kein
rein deutsches Projekt…

Why get fixes and extensions from developers of other countries not
integrated into EGroupware (by Stylite or anyone else)?
As far as I know a lot of spin-offs of the French EGroupware can do a
lot more then the German one?!

This subject is not yet addressed. EGroupware is not a solely German
project …

Here’s my reply:

This is not as easy to answer:

first of all, I nor anyone else from Stylite follow any other list,
but the English and German ones.
if extensions get posted on the lists we follow we usually check the
following:

is the extension of general interest
code quality (security, using API, BO and interfaces, …)
do we (Stylite) want to support customers using that code
–> if we dont answer all this questions with yes, we are not
undertaking the effort of integrating it into EGroupware - this does not
mean we stop any other project-member from taking up the responsibility
for that code and doing so.

if you are talking about the patches in the egroupware.org patch
manager: it’s a question of our resources and (unfortunately) also a
question of the quality of code (many are hacks enabling eGW to do
something, but stopping or scarifying other functionality)

Anyway development questions should be raised on the (English)
developers list, where all involved project members and other interested
developers are subscribed.