I too am not surprised that eBox is dropping eGroupware, due to it's complexities in setting it up properly through eBox. I have been trying for several days to get this properly working, and have met with little success.
Having reviewed what others have stated in previous entries, I have to echo their sentiments; though I don't have an adequate solution/recommendation for a suitable replacement; we are still evaluating several other options/solutions but have not found any of them truly suitable, mainly due to little quirks here and there.
What I believe eBox developers really need to do is request input from the community at large -- maintainers and users alike.
Put together a survey letter and ask system integrators, current customers, potential customers, and users of the product
1) what they would like to see in all-in-one management package,
2) what they would like to see in a all-in-one user desktop package solution,
3) what they are currently using to accomplish their job today,
4) what are the future plans for further applications that each one will require,
5) does the customer/future prospect already have a groupware solution in place, that eBox needs to be integrated with?
6) If they have their own groupware solution in place, will they need outside assistance to develop integrated package front-ends, or just ide's/API's/modules that interface with said package that their in-house staff can take and make work, easily?
If the survey is crafted right, what may be derived from it is snap shot of the current market requirements and future trends that eBox may need to go. Does the customer want a solution that integrated all that eBox has to-date, but add to that, the requirements for modules that interface with third party groupware/CRM/ERP/ticketing systems as well.
While the development cycle may be increased, once the requirements have been determined, I believe in the end run you will have a much better product to offer the community, commercial and otherwise.
For now, IMHO, drop the groupware package, and concentrate on the remainder to get 2.0 out the door soonest; then develop the rest.
One other item that sorely needs addressing - Adequate, accurate, and up-to-date documentation. While it would be nice to have it when the product is released, if it followed with-in a few days that would be tolerable.
IMHO, complicated, all-in-one products that are released, without adequate, updated documentation, is just as worthless as software that has not been adequately tested/written/documented. A good example of how not to do this, is the 1.5/1.5-1 release that points only to the 1.4 documentation, even though the 1.5 series is clearly heavily modified, screen snapshots dont' match what product screens show, and customer is left to try to figure things out on their own -- you lose customers/prospects that way.