Known Element Enterprises Corporate Blog

I have been hard at work preparing for SCALE. Taken a brake from working on the actual product to get supporting tasks done. Here is the result of about a weeks worth of work:
From this “brain dump” I will create:

1. SCALE Presentation
2. Talking points for myself
3. Marketing flyer
4. A message to lugs asking for help

I am sure it will undergo some edits between now and SCALE. However it is the essence of my efforts. I will of course post the final slides on my homepage and the OSER SF news site the same time I e-mail them to the SCALE staff.

Enjoy.

(Slide 1)
Introducing OSER to the world

OSER Project
Charles N Wyble
http://www.thewybles.com/~charles/oser

(Slide 2)
Introducing Myself
Who am I?
My name is Charles Wyble.
I am an exclusive Debian user.
What do I do?
I work as a systems administrator for an electronics payment processor.
I am the OSER project manager.
I contribute to a wide variety of open source projects (Wine/Openoffice/Samba(TNG)/FreeDCE)
Personal Info
I am 21 years of age.
I am married and live in Ventura CA.
Find out more about me at my website which is located at: http://www.thewybles.com/~charles

(Slide 3)
Presentation Outline
What is the OSER Platform?
What is Exchange?
Why does Exchange need to be replaced?
How will the OSER Platform replace Exchange?
What are the unique features of the OSER Platform vs other Exchange Replacements?
Product Demo
Questions and Answers

(Slide 4)
What is the OSER Platform?
Proprietary.
Expensive. How much does it cost. (too much!)
Its possibly the last windows technology in your data center.

(Slide 5)
What is Exchange?

History of exchange.
Explanation of what it does.
What competition does Exchange have?
Open source
Web Based
Outlook Plugins
Closed source
Web Based
Outlook Plugins

(Slide 6)
How will the OSER Platform replace Exchange?
Software used by the OSER project.
Documentation
Migration

(Slide 7)
What are the unique features of the OSER Platform vs other Exchange Replacements?
Because it has early MAPI code and the
outlook plugins (sync and asterisk)
are open source.

(Slide Platform demo.
Install and configure the OSER platform.

Migrate users and data from Microsoft Exchange to the OSER Platform.

(Slide 9)
Questions (and hopefully answers!)

(Slide 10)
Help the OSER Platform.
http://www.thewybles.com/~charles/oser/docs/help/

Hello,

My name is Charles Wyble and I am the founder and project manager for the Open Source Exchange Replacement Platform (OSER). The goal of OSER is to develop a fully open source drop in replacement for Microsoft Exchange. Our target audience is the 30 million or so Exchange 5.5/NT4 installations that are thinking about upgrading to Exchange 2000/2003 but are not able or willing to do so. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce the project and seek help. I thank you for your time.

The benefits of upgrading to later versions of Exchange are many:

1. Centralized Administration.
2. Much more reliable and secure.
3. Much improved remote access.
4. Much improved support for mobile devices.
5. Microsoft has announced the end of life for Exchange 5.5.

However the drawbacks are substantial:

1. Expense. For an organization of 100 users the cost is roughly $30,000.00 for software licenses alone. This is a substantial investment for any organization to make and is unlikely to gain much traction due to the fact that the existing system works.
2. Time. The upgrade time is about 6 months according to a report on the Microsoft Exchange website. [1] This is for an organization that is following ALL of Exchange 5.5 best practices. This is often not the case due to a wide variety of business and technological reasons.
3. New software and architecture. Users and administrators must be re trained to use the new system and business can experience a series of interruptions as the new system is implemented.

Seeing this problem firsthand in the organization with which I was employed, caused me to form an open source project to meet this need. I have been working on the project for about 3 years and will be releasing version 1.0 at SCALE 2006. Version 1.0 will have many features that organizations need to meet there collaboration and messaging needs:

Secure and reliable e-mail transport and access using Postfix and Courier IMAP over SSL.
A built in certificate authority.
Auto configuration of Outlook and Thunderbird/Sunbird for members of the domain.
Realtime collaboration using Jabber as well legacy messaging clients/networks (MSN/Yahoo etc).
Malware and spam protection using Clam Anti Virus and SpamAssassian.
Contact management using OpenLDAP Sync4j and MySQL.
Centralized administration using Webmin.
High availability and scailibility using Hearbeat and Linux Virtual Server software.
Web access using Phprojekt.
Migration of user e-mail and contacts.

All these components have been pre configured to work together enabling rapid deployment into an organization.

However it needs additional features to be a complete solution.

The Web Interface needs to utilize AJAX when it makes sense. For example the Chat module.
A security audit of the code needs to be performed.
Additional graphics work would also be beneficial.
The Web Interface needs voice support. It should be integrated with Asterisk. This will most likely be done with PHP-AGI. This is a fairly major feature and is planned for 1.5.
MAPI Support needs to be moved beyond alpha level support. This is also planned for version 2.0.
Migration of all user data. This can be done at the server level (when MAPI support is more advanced) or extraction from user PST files utilizing libpst [2]. Currently only e-mail and contacts can be migrated. Calendar/note/journal data needs to be supported as well.

The time frame for the 1.5 release is May 1st 2006. A voice interface is a major feature that we hope will attract quite a bit of users. It is also something that is quite exciting and fun to work on. A time frame for a 2.0 release has not yet been established. It depends on the amount of sponsorship the MAPI developer team receives. More information will be available shortly on the MAPI page (currently under construction) [3]

A task list has been created and is accessible from the OSER platform Source Forge project. It provides much more detail
on what needs to be done in regards to the above tasks. [4] If you would like to help the OSER project please join the oser-devel mailing list [5]
If you are interested in monitoring the project please join the oser-announce list [6]

[1]http://tinyurl.com/c49qo
[2]http://alioth.debian.org/projects/libpst
[3]http://www.thewybles.com/~charles/oser/docs/help/mapi/index.html
[4]http://sourceforge.net/pm/?group_id=71838
[5]http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/oser-devel
[6]http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/oser-announce
a

I came across this article on slashdot this morning. Very interesting indeed.

I am still here. Been very busy the past few days. Me and my wife went to the Queen Mary on Sunday. In paticular we went through the Titanic exhibition. It was very fun. Quite a bit of facts and information. In paticular it was amazing how many people transfered onto the ship at the last minute or were placed on it because of cancellations on other shipping lines etc. A large number of people died that might not have if other cirumstances had not occured.

We are having some money issues. I got a traffic ticket and when my wife paid it over the phone, it didn’t go through and it told her to try again later. She did and it failed again. She went online and it went through. Well it turns out it also went through the other two times. So I have been trying to clean up that mess. Also I got a letter the other day from a collection agency trying to collect on a bill I already paid.

My main frustration with this situation isn’t the money (which comes and goes as the cost of living). No its the people involved. At both places the people I have spoken with have been very un helpful and not very willing to listen. At the traffic court the lady would talk and talk and seem to not stop to breathe. It was very hard to get her to stop and let me ask questions. And she argued with me when I asked her about what she did to escalte my problem. She told me that she went to one person in the Information Technology Unit and that person wasn’t there and so she didn’t do any further followup. Not 5 minutes later I said to her: “So what your telling me is that you went to one person and didn’t do anything else.” She said no and started to come up with an argument. So I asked her again and she then realized her mistake and agreed with me. I then requested that she go talk to the supervisor of this person which she then did. So evidently her default response is to argue/deny/lie. Not a good policy in my opinion.

The guy at the collection agency for the bill talked quite a bit and didn’t seem to want to listen to what I had to say. Its very hard for me to work with people like that. My coworkers/boss are not like that at all. They all have exceptional listening skills. As do many of the users I interact with on a daily basis. A couple however do not. However I will not name those people or there title or gender because they could be reading this blog.

Work today was fun and exciting. I left about 7:30 like I normally do (I am a morning person) and got on the freeway about 7:45. Very shortly after that traffic jammed up solid. Not moving at all. Turns out there was a big rig that had fallen over and was blocking all lanes. So I turned the car off pushed the seat back and relaxed. Most of the people around me did the same. Some read. Some had passengers to keep them company. Some did work. However the person behind me went ballastic. She kept pounding her steering wheel. Sobbing in frustration/anger. Yelling into a cellphone to some hapless soul that she wasn’t going anywhere. I was rather amused.

About an hour later I saw clumps of people standing on the side of the freeway. I joined them. Asking where they were headed and what there occupation was yielded the following results:

1 Man. A veteranian analyst. Essentially a support role to veteraniains.
1 Woman his wife. I think she worked at a tow truck shop. Not sure.
1 Man A programmer.
1 Man An IT manager.
1 Man Golfer.

I know why I was there. It was a clump of people and I was bored from sitting in my car. Also I wanted to assess the situation from a different vantage point having exhausted what I could do from my vehicle (mainly call my wife and get updates from latraffic.com). The other IT people were most likely the same reason. Its in our blood to assess situations and gather peer input. I imagine the veteranian analyst guy was there for the same reason. His wife came because thats what wifes do. Stick with there husbands. The golfer….. ah who knows. He was a retired guy. Probably best not to sit to long you know?

Anyway my wife is home and its time to put groceries away and such.

Bye

In order to release Beta 1 of the OSER Platform Server tonight I need to complete the following:

1. Configure and test Cosmo. See this post for details.
2. Configure and test Samba TNG.
3. Configure and test Sync4J.
4. Integrate custom kernel into Morphix build.
5. Put custom branding into Morphix build.

So lots of work to do. I will be taking a break about noon. I plan to have the Cosmo and kernel tasks done by then. The rest is for after lunch.

Well I realized that I need to support CalDAV in the OSER Server. After doing some research I have settled on using Cosmo as the CalDAV server. It runs inside tomcat which is good because Sync4J does as well. Sync4J is for SyncML support. Whew. Enough links for you?

Anyway the purpose of CalDAV support is to allow a wide variety of clients to store calendar information on the OSER server. This includes:

1. Sunbird
2. Evolution
3. Kontact
4. Outlook (with the OpenConnector plugin.

The goal of the OSER Platform is to allow you to re use as much of your existing investment in client software
as possible. Not ready or willing to migrate your desktops off of Windows/Office/Outlook? No problem. Running
Linux on your desktops? We support that to.

So I am now working on integrating Cosmo into an existing Tomcat installation. It looks to be fairly simple.
Just have to remove the common stuff and copy the libraries and configs to the existing installation.

from here:

http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=174574&threshold=1&mode=nested&commentsort=0&op=Change

When your site is down & Livejournal’s making you angry
You can always blame – Bantown!
When you’ve got blogs, all the noise and the worry
Seems to stop, I know – Bantown!
Just listen to the music of the vulnerable website
Linger on the domain where the CSS is not right
You only lose!

The lags are much longer there
You can see all your troubles, see all your fear
So go Bantown! things’ll be worse when you’re
Bantown! – no security measures, for sure
Bantown! – everyone’s waiting on you!

Evidently some group called Bantown hacked into a bunch of LJ accounts via Javascript/
cross site scripting exploits (surprise surprise) and took them over. Now they have
gotten bored and are going to target another social networking site. Gee I wonder which
one they will hit? Oh I am gonna take a wild stabbing in the dark guess: MySpace.
Cursed scourge and time waster that it is. (Can you tell I don’t really care for it?)

We had to block it where I work. Now the internet cafe we have in the lunch room
is packed all the time. All people going to MySpace. Its like an addiction. Good thing
that network is separate from ours. You know I have noticed the net being faster lately….

Its insane the amount of time people spend on there. It consumes them like nothing I have
ever seen. Well except for drugs.

*light bulb goes on*
Wait. I have figured it out. The terrorists are behind this. They will blackmail
millions of MySpace users into commiting acts of terrorism to ensure continued
access to MySpace. In there addiction clouded mind they won’t realize that blowing
themselves up terminates access to the web. Oh well. Organized crime anyone? Need
a new source of people to run drugs etc?

Bah.

Yes I am bored. Sloooooow day at work. Perhaps I shall go read up on exploiting sites
via javascript. Greymagic
anyone? Oh yeah. Don’t visit that site in IE. I can’t guarantee your safety if you do. You
have been warned. [1]

*yawns*
I have been working on this post for a while. Time to post it now.

[1]Legal Notice. I hereby reserve the right to delete comments saying that I destroyed your computer because you decided to visit that site in IE. Not that you will be able to comment anyway because your IE is broke. Hah!

I sent an e-mail to the OpenConnector team today asking them if they would like to use the OSER plaform as the reference implemenation to test OpenConnector against. You can follow the thread here

1. Customize bootup. Add branding to the boot screen.
2. Configure Samba TNG
3. Create a certificate authority
4. Install and configure webmin
5. Get custom kernel on CD
6. Create startup/shutdown scripts for custom services

I plan to get most of this done tonight. Might not be able to get the branding done as we don’t have our logo done yet.
Look for the CD around 11:00 PM PST tonight. Probably start uploading around 10:00 PM. I don’t have a very fast uplink.

I was thinking about doing two liveCDs. 1 for the server and one for the client. I talked it over with my wife and she thinks its a good idea. She has been a tremendous help in making various decisions about some of the technical issues as well as all of the marketing and business related issues. I am glad I have her help in this. She is the best!

The server CD features have been well documented on my blog so I won’t rehash it here. The client cd will have the following features:

1. Gnome and KDE
2. Evolution and Korganizer clients
3. Different Palm sync software (multisync/jpilot/kpilot)
4. Custom GAIM build.
5. Custom Thunderbird build.
6. The ability to operate in a “kiosk” mode. This will allow administrators to lock the system down for increased security/reliability etc.

I will create a configuration wizard that will ask for basic info (IP address/login info) for the OSER server. This will then preconfigure all the
client applications allowing for very quick setup and testing.

I am about 85% done with the server CD by the way. I will most likely be putting a test iso up (minus my custom kernel) on SourceForge tonight.
Then spend the rest of the week working on the client CD. Yep. That is what I will do.

Update:

I won’t be able to get the CD image up tonight. It should be up tomorrow night however. Probably around 10:00 PM PST.
I am editing the various configuration files so that everything is integrated. I also need to have webmin setup. I also need to
add a certificate authority so that LDAP/Postfix/IMAP etc don’t complain about non valid certs. Fun stuff.

I am now working on creating a custom kernel for the OSER liveCD. Its actually fairly hard. I need to pick a good balance of modules/functionality to include. Do I want to include support for everything? I don’t think so. The kernel will support:

• Block Devices:
• Compaq/Mylex/Promise Controllers
• ATA over Etherenet
• SCSI tape/hard drives and all the low level SCSI drivers (including ISCSI)
• Software RAID
• FibreChannel
• Quicknet (T1 Card Interface for Asterisk)
• Palm/PocketPC PDA support
• AppArmor support

It will not inlcude:

• Firewire Support
• Uncommon NIC support (determined by what I have seen as common is most desktop/server offerings)
• Joystick support
• Parallel port support
• ISDN
• Video4Linux

The hard part is that the line between server class machines and desktop class machines continues to blur. The SCSI and other storage stuff (RAID/FibreChannel/ISCSI/AoE) is used on both more and more. Plus most people will be using the liveCD on a desktop system for evaulation before putting it on a server. Or at least I think they will. Maybe not. Who knows. This will be determined by feedback I get from the OSER Testing list. If enough people demand support for something I will add it. And if one person demands support for one paticular item that no one else wants they can hire me to add the support for them. Thats how open source works you know They can add it themself or have me do it. Anyway for all the gory details see the
kernel .config file.

I will be writing another post soon that details all the apps I have included in the liveCD as well.