Bongo (software)

Infobox Software
name = Bongo



caption = Bongo's web mail/calendering above, and administrative functions below
developer = Bongo Project community
operating_system = Linux, Solaris
genre = Webmail, Mail server, Electronic calendar
license = GPL
website = [http://www.bongo-project.org bongo-project.org]

Bongo is an open source or free software mail and calendar project.

Unlike many other projects doing similar development, Bongo states that it is not attempting to create an "enterprise" solution designed for large businesses [cite web | url=http://www.bongo-project.org/Documentation/Frequently_Asked_Questions | title=Bongo FAQ | accessdate=July 18|accessyear=2007] , but software more accessible to the needs of small groups of people and individuals.

Bongo isn't supported or sponsored by any commercial entity at this point.

History

Bongo descends from the Hula project. On November 28th, 2006, Novell announced that they would no longer work on Hula full-time. [cite web | author=Teichman, Peter | year=2006 | title=Hula Status | work=forge.novell.com | url=http://forge.novell.com/pipermail/hula-general/2006-November/002084.html | accessdate=November 28|accessyear=2006] At that time, the community that had developed around Hula attempted to continue the project, and Nat Friedman later announced that the community would take the project forward in an audio interview he did with LUGRadio in the UK. [cite web | author=Wafaa, Andrew | year=2006 | title=Nat Friedman on LUG Radio| url=http://forge.novell.com/pipermail/hula-general/2006-December/002380.html | accessdate=July 18|accessyear=2007] However, that proved to be a short-lived episode in the project's life, as in January 2007 Novell announced that they would be selling the Netmail business to Messaging Architects.

In January 2007, the Bongo Project was launched, albeit without formal announcement. The first "official" word from the project came in February 2007, with the availability of the first developer preview release of Bongo. [cite web | author=Hudson, Alex | year=2007 | title=M1 Release | url=https://mail.gna.org/public/bongo-devel/2007-02/msg00058.html | accessdate=July 18 | accessyear=2007] The second release of Bongo (version 0.2, or "M2") was announced in May 2007. [cite web | author=Hudson, Alex | date = 2007-05-26 | year=2007 | title=M2 Release | url=http://planet.bongo-project.org/blog/announcements/2007/05/26/#release-m2 | accessdate=August 19 | accessyear=2007]

Future

The Bongo Project has made code releases, attempting to avoid some of the criticism of earlier efforts where the development continued for years without any outcome. While the [http://www.bongo-project.org/Roadmap Bongo roadmap] is not set in stone, the intention is to have a stable release early in 2008.

ee also

* Collaborative software
* List of personal information managers

Compare to

* @Mail
* Citadel
* exchange4linux
* Kerio MailServer
* Kolab
* Mozilla Thunderbird
* Scalix
* [http://www.zarafa.com Zarafa]
* Zimbra

References

External links

* [http://bongo-project.org/ Official site]