I rather like the way the thread has gone. It demonstrates widely varying idea's on what a Zentyal server should be.
I think the UPS situation is sorted and disaster recovery is stuck slightly as the solution is there through subscriptions.
I also think that the combination of Zarafa, Alfresco and LTSP makes Zentyal a much better alternative to MS SBS.
The technologies to provide a CMS are already there and Joomla is a simple, Wordpress also and Drupal. They don't need to be intergrated in a similar way that the above do. I have been working with Joomla for a while and will create some documentation on the easiest way to install. If anybody would like to contribute then I would be happy to grab a brain.
Joomla can authenticate against an LDAP server as my current sites do. I just haven't worked out how to create users from Joomla and that is on my wish list.
With Apache, MySQL, PHP5, LDAP and the various libs already included most web applications will run with very little admin work.
It would be nice to be able to have Forum sub catagories for web applications / (LAMP) style admin, Zarafa and exchange replacements, Alfresco and sharepoint replacements and LTSP and terminal server replacements.
My server could run all these with no problem and cost £700 in fact the server isn't my problem. I have twenty clients that cost £20,000 which is my main fiscal problem.
I have mentioned this before as I like the way the Joomla repository works and I believe Zentyal could work in a similar way.
All Zentyal functionality is modular which allows us to choose how we load the server and what we run on a single box.
It is a falacy that this will make Zentyal cumbersome or unmanagable.
I would like to see a domain subscription system where a server can be registered with a core selection of services.
Then provide a cost for each module and a years subscription on that module. This allows the current blanket subcription to be split so that users with small narrow requirements can have small payments.
It gives the user a cost effective way to choose how he wants to run the server and pay.
This would also give Zentyal more feedback to what modules are worth supporting as payment would indicate this.
So basically I am saying I want more from Zentyal in choice. I want to be able to cherry pick what services I provide and pay a relatively small subscription charge on this.
Many will have relatively simple requirements and may only pay a couple of euro's. In my case I want a large selection and if this increases say what is a current subcription by 50% this is still excellent value for money.
Anyway this thread has been excellently diverse. Think it is about time to split it to Community headings of, Zarafa, Webservices, DMS, terminal services and possibly more options on subscription and module purchase.
Stuart