Dovecot Oy merger with Open-Xchange AG

[Daniel Miller]

On 3/19/2015 3:26 AM, Timo Sirainen wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Today I can finally announce that Dovecot Oy company has merged with Open-Xchange AG. This helps us to get more Dovecot developers, support people and so on. Most importantly, eventually it should allow me to get back to doing what I like the most: Designing new and interesting stuff for Dovecot and perfecting the old stuff :) OX is a great match to Dovecot going forward. They also really like open source and share our plans for the future. Nothing big will change as a result of this merger: Dovecot will stay Dovecot with its own name and release schedules. We're not going to force OX and Dovecot to be the same product, other than having a somewhat deeper integration between them.
>

My initial impression is...sounds great!  Then, after further thought, 
and watching the flame war, I've changed my mind to...sounds great!

I'm operating under the assumption that you are continuing to be in 
charge of Dovecot and will choose what and how to implement changes and 
fixes.  I'm further operating under the assumption that you may choose 
to have certain features, appropriate for larger installations, that you 
will want to receive compensation for from your users.  And I'm assuming 
that by having OX behind you, those initial assumptions remain - Dovecot 
remains your baby, you will grow it as you see fit - but now you've got 
some financial backing that allows you more freedom to continue to 
develop Dovecot for general-purpose use while reasonably having certain 
features developed to support the paid model.

If I'm mistaken then please correct me - but I'm seeing nothing but 
upside.  Certainly for you, and if you were to abandon open source 
Dovecot today (which I've seen absolutely no indication) you've already 
provided a tool that has a significant user base and you deserve to be 
rewarded for it.  But based on your previous actions and your original 
post, and I have no reason not to take you at your word, this sounds 
like a win/win for Dovecot developers and users. Congratulations!

-- 
Daniel