| End Of Life strategy for Kerio Connect [message #150027] |
Thu, 15 July 2021 17:14  |
mayall
Messages: 97
Registered: October 2006
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I submit the following in the hope that it will be read by those at GFI Software who are responsible for the future of Kerio Connect and that this will spark thoughtful discussion.
Many discussions on this board have centered on the future of Kerio Connect largely complaining about a perceived lack of support, fixes, and new features. It would be great if there was a public policy and process for Kerio Connect while it fades into the sunset (which all software eventually does).
I've been involved with email from the early days, having created an email client and server. (Anyone remember Emailer and LetterRip?)
While email remains very useful and popular, there have been enormous changes:
1. The rise of the behemoths, especially Gmail.
2. New messaging processes including text, chat, and proprietary systems.
3. Generational changes in how email is used.
Kerio Connect is a good product. It's quite well designed and generally robust. Those of us who run Kerio Connect servers have remained loyal because the server does what it should. But the days of small email servers are numbered. Making money off a product like Kerio Connect must be extremely difficult.
There are two reasonable paths forward for useful but unprofitable software:
1. Shut it down. Preferably this follows a public EOL process with an especially good final release and licenses that continue to work in perpetuity.
2. Open source it. Making a product open source is a difficult decision but obviously allows a product to live on, assuming the community finds the product useful enough to maintain it.
I assume most of us would prefer Open Source as a path forward.
To be very clear: GFI Software owns Kerio Connect and can do what it wants with it. Given the difficult market for email servers, I believe GFI has done a reasonable job maintaining and supporting Connect. I assume it is tough to make money off Kerio Connect but perhaps I'm wrong.
Kerio Connect has already had a long life but I am optimistic that Kerio Connect servers will be running for many more years.
Thanks,
Will Mayall
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