Linux Journal: The OpenMail Showdown: Is Bruce Perens Just a Pretty Face?

“Who has more juice at Hewlett-Packard? Bruce Perens or the
Microsoft quislings? It’s time to find out. HP just discontinued
its proprietary mail and calendaring server, OpenMail, which was
the only non-Microsoft server compatible with Microsoft Outlook’s
popular calendar features.”

“Jeremy Allison, a lead Samba developer and the strangely
cool-headed man in the middle between free software and proprietary
protocols, is concerned. “Once Microsoft Exchange is within an
organization, Microsoft domain controller services are not far
behind,” he wrote in an open letter to free software developers and
journalists today. “I’ve seen Microsoft Exchange in action as a
wedge to drive Microsoft products too often to lie down and let
OpenMail die.”

“Since HP won’t support OpenMail as a proprietary product any
more, the responsible thing to do for their customers would be to
release it under a free license, to allow someone else to support
those customers if HP won’t. And this is the only sane course for
HP too. Can you imagine an HP sales person trying to sell another
software package, right after HP stranded the OpenMail customers?
“Honestly, we won’t cancel this one right after you invest lots of
time in implementation and training. You’ve got to believe us!”
Right, sure. No sale.”

“And OpenMail could help the so-far slow advance of Linux on the
desktop, Jeremy says.”

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