Roundcube, one of the best open source web-based email clients around, has decided to team up with Nextcloud, a popular open-source collaboration platform that is known for its suite of collaboration tools.
This move comes in at a time when the importance of emails is just growing, and the likes of Google and Microsoft are trying to corner the market.
Allow me to take you through this.
A New Home for Roundcube
That is what the CEO of Nextcloud, Frank Karlitschek, mentions this move to be:
Going forward, Nextcloud will be providing the necessary resources such as hosting the project, investments for procuring talent, helping development, and fostering a community around Roundcube.
And most importantly, Roundcube will not be replacing Nextcloud Mail; both of them will exist as separate webmail solutions.
Frank has emphasized that Roundcube is an important open-source project used by many, and Nextcloud Mail is “a powerful client in its own right”, but there are no plans to merge them.
You might be wondering; why is this change happening?
Well, the founder and maintainer of Roundcube, Thomas Brüderli, had to step down. When asked why, he said that:
With the birth of our kids my focus how to spend my off-work time clearly moved towards family life and thus I gradually stopped contributing and I lost track of what’s happening in the project.
The Roundcube project deserves a better and a more committed lead and therefore it‘s time for me to step back and let go.
This is something many out there can relate to, it is good to see that Thomas handed his precious project over to someone who can keep it going.
I must say, I was surprised to hear about this, having used Roundcube as my webmail of choice at workplace, I have seen how it has evolved since 2018.
I am glad that this project is getting the attention and care it deserves.
Furthermore, I suggest you go through the official blog, and the interview linked there, for more insights on this merge.
💬 What do you think? How will this work out?
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