1 Topic by ZhangHuangbin

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Topic: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

Here's the final decision:

*) Full source code of iRedAdmin-Pro will be available to paid customers, just like old days. We don't go close source.
*) Additionally, to benefit small companies and home/family users, we will offer a 10-user edition of iRedAdmin-Pro (without source code) for FREE. Coming soon.
*) Price of NEW one-year license is slightly increased to $499. http://www.iredmail.org/pricing.html
*) Annual renew fee is $250 for additional 1 year, $400 for 2 years, $500 for 3 years. http://www.iredmail.org/admin_renew.html

By the way, a bugfix release is coming.

== UPDATE: Feb 1, 2015 ==

Full source code of iRedAdmin-Pro will be available to paid customers. We don't go close source. Additionally, we will offer a 10-user edition of iRedAdmin-Pro (without source code) for FREE.

== UPDATE, Jan 7, 2015 ==

Removed one license term, it will not be applied. That means iRedAdmin-Pro will be still accessible after license expired, but no fixes/patches and new releases for expired license.

  • After license expired, iRedAdmin-Pro will be unaccessible, and customer has to purchase a new license to get the latest release of iRedAdmin-Pro. We encourage customers to keep their licenses active to get the latest iRedAdmin-Pro release. Note: This doesn't impact all mail services built by iRedMail at all.

----

Dear iRedAdmin-Pro customers,

We decide to change some license terms of iRedAdmin-Pro, and the change will occur on Feb 01, 2015.

  • No more NEW lifetime license. Lifetime license brings some hidden cost without further profit. So January is the last month you can upgrade existing license to a lifetime license, or purchase a lifetime license. Note: if you already own a lifetime license of iRedAdmin-Pro, it won't impact your mail services (IMAP/POP3/SMTP/HTTPS/webmail, etc), and it won't impact your mail accounts. With a lifetime license, you can always get new releases without additional cost, it's always a lifetime license, permanently free.

I know you may be shocked that we decide to switch from open source (iRedAdmin-Pro) to close source, this is really a hard decision for us. The purpose of these license term changes is to gain more profit and benefit more customers, especially small companies.

It's really a hard decision, and we must be honest. iRedMail project is now 7-year old (since 2007), we wish it will benefit you and more companies for a long time. Profit keeps iRedMail project moving on, and getting better.

For customers who modified iRedAdmin-Pro to achieve some new features, we're open to cooperate with you to work out some APIs for you to achieve same features, with easier maintenance, don't hesitate to contact us.

I want to emphasize one thing here, we will continue providing the excellent/quick support and active development as usual.

----

Spider Email Archiver: On-Premises, lightweight email archiving software developed by iRedMail team. Supports Amazon S3 compatible storage and custom branding.

2 Reply by mir (edited by mir 2015-01-02 01:48:46)

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

ZhangHuangbin wrote:

[*]iRedAdmin-Pro will go close source (Python source files) since Feb 1, 2015. We're preparing to pricing iRedAdmin-Pro based on number of mailboxes, this will benefits more small companies. And there will be an unlimited edition available just like current iRedAdmin-Pro.[/*]

How is this supposed to be implemented?
Will the base iRedAdmin still be open covered by a FOSS license while the scripts and code which is added to the base and constitute the iRedAdmin-Pro be licensed under a CSS license or will the code base for the two versions be kept separately?

3 Reply by ZhangHuangbin

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

iRedAdmin is released under dual licenses.

Current iRedAdmin open source will stay open source, released under GPL, source code is hosted on bitbucket: http://bitbucket.org/zhb/iredadmin-ose/

iRedAdmin-Pro is not GPL since its initial release.

4 Reply by mir

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

ZhangHuangbin wrote:

iRedAdmin is released under dual licenses.

Current iRedAdmin open source will stay open source, released under GPL, source code is hosted on bitbucket: http://bitbucket.org/zhb/iredadmin-ose/

iRedAdmin-Pro is not GPL since its initial release.

So a separate code base?

5 Reply by ZhangHuangbin

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

Same code base.

6 Reply by nicolasfo (edited by nicolasfo 2015-01-02 16:23:45)

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

Hello,

I'm in lifetime licence. Nothing changes except the moving from open to close source code, am I right ?

What will be the princing plan when it'll be based on number of mailboxes and unlimited number of mailboxes ?
The new plan is not lifetime is it right ? So licences / mailboxes and unlimited will have to be renewed ?

And if I understand all, only "extra-features" bringed by the Pro version of iRedAdmin will be closed source ?

Thanks

Nicolas

7 Reply by Dexus

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

Ooouuh...

i'm now a littel bit frustrated...

some more informations about the future payment details like costs per 100 accounts etc. where nice to know...

8 Reply by ZhangHuangbin

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

nicolasfo wrote:

I'm in lifetime licence. Nothing changes except the moving from open to close source code, am I right ?

you're right.

nicolasfo wrote:

What will be the princing plan when it'll be based on number of mailboxes and unlimited number of mailboxes ?

No detailed draft plan yet.

nicolasfo wrote:

The new plan is not lifetime is it right ? So licences / mailboxes and unlimited will have to be renewed ?

Yes.

nicolasfo wrote:

And if I understand all, only "extra-features" bringed by the Pro version of iRedAdmin will be closed source ?

All features will be close source.

9 Reply by ZhangHuangbin

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

Dexus wrote:

some more informations about the future payment details like costs per 100 accounts etc. where nice to know...

No detailed draft plan yet, I'm open if you are willing to share your opinion.

10 Reply by mir

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

ZhangHuangbin wrote:

No detailed draft plan yet, I'm open if you are willing to share your opinion.

Have you considered providing some kind of hosted solution?

11 Reply by ZhangHuangbin

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

mir wrote:

Have you considered providing some kind of hosted solution?

Hosted iRedMail or iRedAdmin-Pro?

12 Reply by mir

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

ZhangHuangbin wrote:

Hosted iRedMail or iRedAdmin-Pro?

iRedAdmin-Pro. It would require a new installer which didn't install iRedAdmin and instead enabled remote access for the hosted iRedAdmin-Pro. For security reason I would suggest some kind of proxy running locally on the users installation using strong encryption (OpenVPN or IPSec) to communicate back to the hosted iRedAdmin-Pro. Hosting  iRedAdmin-Pro should not be resource hungry so a proper dedicated server would easily run 1000 of hosted  iRedAdmin-Pro for users. This gives several benefits:
1) User need not bother with any configuration
2) User always runs newest  iRedAdmin-Pro
3) Help is easier to provide since a dedicate connection exists between you an user
4) If awstats could be served from same interface no need for local webserver
5) The business deal between you and customer is more straight forward
6) The cut between open source and closed source is more obvious
7) You could actually skip the separation between  iRedAdmin-OSE and  iRedAdmin-Pro since the  iRedAdmin available will be the one available from bitbucket and the supported one is the version available at iRedAdmin-hosted-solution
8) Users wanting to create their own extensions using an open API can upload to the server after proper inspection to there own instance

There is surely several other god benefits but these was the one I had in mind at the moment.

13 Reply by ZhangHuangbin

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

Thanks for sharing your ideas. We should move to another forum topic to discuss this idea and others not related to license term changes.

This is a good idea. Actually, I implemented a draft edition of SAAS iRedAdmin-Pro before (not perfectly implemented, it just works as a prototype). It requires customer to:

1) provide SQL/LDAP credential (but iRedAdmin-Pro doesn't store them anywhere, of course). iRedAdmin-Pro (SAAS) must access customer's SQL/LDAP servers through secure connection (e.g. LDAPS or LDAP over TLS). And since iRedAdmin-Pro doesn't store credentials, customer is asked to provide them again next time.

2) open network ports of SQL/LDAP services on customer's server. If customer doesn't want to allow iRedAdmin-Pro to manage accounts, it's ok to close these network ports anytime.

The biggest concern is privacy. As you can see, iRedAdmin-Pro (SAAS) can access all your account data. Buying one license of iRedAdmin-Pro and deploy on your own server is much easier and you don't need to worry about privacy.

14 Reply by mir

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

Agree, this should be a topic of its own. I have some ideas I would like to share so awaiting you to open a new topic.

15 Reply by ZhangHuangbin

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

mir wrote:

I have some ideas I would like to share so awaiting you to open a new topic.

Don't wait for me, just create one yourself. smile

16 Reply by mir

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

Ok. Should I create it under iRedAdmin-Pro support?

17 Reply by ZhangHuangbin

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

mir wrote:

Ok. Should I create it under iRedAdmin-Pro support?

Yes, please.

18 Reply by iperkins

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

This new licensing model is of great interest to me. I have one small domain with essentially one user and I was thinking of adding a second domain with 5 users, all pointing to an outside address. Licensing by number of users may make it possible for me to afford iRedAdmin-Pro, thereby supporting your excellent work in a more substantive way. I would be migrating to a new Centos 7 server, likely before March 1, 2015.

Thanks!

19 Reply by brandon

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

Does the current lifetime license also keep unlimited mailboxes? Or will current lifetime licenses need to also pay for mailboxes?

20 Reply by Dexus

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

@brandon Lifetime = unlimited for 1 (one) Server with no limit in mailboxes.

If not its like you buy a new car but you only allowed by licences to drive only if you pay for the people that in the car.... on each way....

21 Reply by ZhangHuangbin

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

brandon wrote:

Does the current lifetime license also keep unlimited mailboxes? Or will current lifetime licenses need to also pay for mailboxes?

It will be unlimited and won't expire, you can always get new releases without additional cost. Hope it is clear.

22 Reply by tfazri

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

what will happen if we do not buy the license?

because this time we already have a license that will expire in the year 2099, we have bought a few years ago

whether it will affect the existing email account?

or just an effect on the system only?


FYI : my license

License info
License status License is active
Product nameiRedAdmin-Pro-LDAP
Purchase dateMay 07, 2013
Expire date Dec 31, 2099
Contacts
Latest version2.2.0 (You are running version 2.1.2)

Thanks

23 Reply by ZhangHuangbin

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

tfazri wrote:

what will happen if we do not buy the license?
because this time we already have a license that will expire in the year 2099, we have bought a few years ago

This is a lifetime license, there's nothing changed to a lifetime license except close source.

tfazri wrote:

whether it will affect the existing email account?
or just an effect on the system only?

iRedAdmin-Pro is just a web application, it won't impact your mail services like POP3/IMAP/SMTP/HTTPS/webmail, it won't impact your email accounts. The only impact is you cannot access https://[your_server]/iredadmin/ (iRedAdmin-Pro) to manage mail accounts if license expired. Note: you can still switch to iRedAdmin open source edition if you want.

24 Reply by wallace

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

Hello,
I discovered this post following the sending of the email informing him of the update.
What bothers me most is the passage closed source code. I took a license there are some years in the idea of supporting a well done free software. Now that the sources will be closed this goes against our software procurement policy that may be without access to sources and I will have to look for another solution.

I recommended your solution to my customers but now what difference compared to competitors like Zimbra which the owner closed sources of open source.
No difference so the CTO will go compare interfaces and user-side functionality. For it is only iRedmail Roundcube and clearly that's not enough.
Before we could insist that they had access to the source code and it allowed to tip the decision to iRedmail, now it will become impossible.

Except for our customers, for our lifetime license is still valid without limitation, why not provide the source code for these facilities as before? This does not change and we can always add our features as before.

Clearly I am very disappointed about this news, I really feel betrayed.

25 Reply by ZhangHuangbin

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Re: Upcoming license term changes of iRedAdmin-Pro, occurs on Feb 01, 2015

wallace wrote:

This does not change and we can always add our features as before.

You need APIs in this case. Of course you can do the same with source code, but APIs is the best way.