On 01/10/2014 05:50 AM, Alessio Fattorini wrote:
Hello everybody, my name is Alessio Fattorini and I'm part of a team of FLOSS developers that is working on a project named NethServer. We’d like to share with you our experience and our ideas for the future developments. You could think of NethServer as CentOS with some extra packages, particularly a powerful and extensible web interface that simplifies common administration tasks. NethServer is for the sysadmin who appreciates the effectiveness of a user interface which saves time compared to direct configuration file modification and for users who want to approach CentOS without having Linux skills.
The Clear folks have proposed a SIG/Variant as well that on the surface sounds somewhat similar. Is there overlap here, where cooperation/coordination between the two groups would be beneficial?
We didn't reinvent the wheel, NethServer is a partial rewrite of the original SME Server code, focusing on maintainability, extensibility and standard compliance with CentOS. We think we achieved those goals with:
- A dynamic, streamlined user-interface
- Standard components, tested widespread configurations
- Minimal differences with upstream (CentOS)
- Easy installation
- Simplified administration tasks
- Use of templates and text-based db for configuration (configuration
will always be consistent)
- Built-in extensibility
Where does this code live currently? is it available via git or similar?
NethServer architecture explicitly supports developers by making it easy to install and integrate additional software. We quickly added some pre-configured modules, installable with a “single click”, for example: LAMP framework Caching + filtering web proxy (with SSL filter) SOGo Groupware Mail Server with Antispam and Antivirus VPN (OpenVPN and IPsec/L2TP) Firewall (Shorewall) Intrusion detection (Snort) ownCloud
Are these packaged in rpm or handled via some other installation method?
More informations could be found on the official project website: www.nethserver.it.
As soon as we read about CentOS variants, we have developed the idea of releasing NethServer as a CentOS variant and we are thinking of a SME SIG, a group exploring the needs of small enterprises (we are based in Italy, where the vast majority of enterprises is really small). According to you, does NethServer meet the basic requirements?
We’ll be at Brussels Dojo and FOSDEM and we'd love to discuss directly with you our ideas. Cheers, Alessio and the NethServer team
Certainly. Please stop by and we can discuss in a bit more detail.