Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated
[Moderator: If sendmail goes commercial, will that provide for a better
response to complaints about sendmail security issues? Will Allman
respond to them and do more auditing of code? Does it matter?
Sendmail 9 is under way, and rumor has it that no legacy code will
be used.]
Email developer goes commercial
By Dan Goodin
Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM
March 12, 1998, 5:40 p.m. PT
Following a trend of the network he
helped build, Internet architect Eric
Allman is going commercial.
Nearly 20 years ago, the computer
programmer developed a simple program
for exchanging email between a
[Source code for the masses] governmen
network
known as the ARPAnet and the computer
system at the University of California
at Berkeley. Today, Allman's Sendmail
software--which is free for any
network administrator to copy, use,
and modify--routes an estimated 75
percent of email on the Internet.
Next week, the software will enter a
new phase in its evolution. On Monday,
Allman will announce the formation of
Sendmail Incorporated, a for-profit
company in Emeryville, California,
that will design commercial
enhancements and provide support for
the program, known in Internet circles
as a mail transfer agent.
"We realized that the Internet is very
much at a critical turning point in
its evolution," said Greg Olson, a
former executive at Integrated Systems
who will be chief executive of
Sendmail. He added that as more
commercial companies take to the Net,
free software--also known as freeware
or open source software--faces new
challenges.
"Free software on the Net is not
necessarily the most cost-effective
solution for businesses," he
explained. "If it does not step up to
the challenge of meeting commercial
needs, it will be left behind."
Sendmail joins a host of other
companies that are bridging the gap
between freeware and commercial
enterprise. In January, Netscape
Communications said it would freely
distribute the source code for its
Communicator software suite. Caldera
and Red Hat both have created
moneymaking businesses distributing
and supporting the open source
operating system known as Linux.
The advantage to open source is that
literally thousands of talented
developers are free to collaborate on
bug fixes, upgrades, and support for
the product, saving a company precious
in-house resources. A disadvantage to
open source is that it often requires
more expertise in installing and
configuring the software on a
particular machine, creating headaches
and extra costs for businesses that
want to use the programs.
Olson said Sendmail will adopt a
"hybrid business model" that
simultaneously provides solutions to
businesses while preserving the open
source status of the software. On
Monday, the company will release in
beta the next version of the open
source, Sendmail 8.9. The final
release is slated for early April. The
new version will feature extensive
tools for administrators to block
spam, the company said.
The first commercial product--to be
called Sendmail 8.9 Pro--is due out in
the third quarter of 1998, and will
provide enhancements that are not
available in the open source version.
[See special coverage: How free is Fre
the commercial version will be
available in a pretested, precompiled
binary format, eliminating what many
network administrators say is the
arduous task of downloading the
software off the Net and then
customizing it to run on their
particular systems.
Olson said Sendmail would peddle its
wares primarily to Internet service
providers during its first year of
operation and then move on to
corporate customers during its second
year.
Phil Schacter, a senior analyst with
the Burton Group, said the plan is
likely to work. "There's a market out
there for a supported and enriched
version of the mail transfer agent,"
he said. "Both of those marketplaces,
I believe, are willing to pay to have
a vendor support the product and
enhance it."
He added that Sendmail's biggest
challenge will be pleasing corporate
customers, who will want more
sophisticated features built into the
software: "They've got a lot of work
to do before they have a complete
Internet messaging product suitable
for a corporate messaging
infrastructure."
But Sendmail has a number of
advantages, namely its dominant market
share. Its closest competitors,
Software.Com, Microsoft Exchange and
Lotus Notes--hold just 3 percent of
the market. It also has received
investments from Sun Microsystems
executives Bill Joy and Andy
Bechtolscheim.
The company's biggest challenge may be
trying to serve what sometimes are
mutually exclusive agendas held by
those in the open source and
commercial communities. If Sendmail is
to remain a viable open source
program, its free version must contain
the same advanced features as the
commercial version. That approach may
be hard to follow in the commercial
world where there are pressures to
water down free versions to provide
incentives for buying the commercial
version.
That approach would be disastrous for
Sendmail, said Eric Raymond, a
programmer involved in developing open
source software for the last 20 years.
In the end, he says, "Sendmail will
remain dependent on hackers [in the
open source community] for support,
testing, and development." If crucial
improvements are available in the
commercial version only, he warned,
"there would be a peasant mob heading
for the castle with pitchforks within
a couple of weeks."
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Received on Tue Mar 17 01:27:40 1998