The veil is finally lifted. After months of discussions and four months of preparation in Osnabrück, including a fight for dear life in the snow during the Battle of Osnabrück alongside my new comrade in arms from Scotland, Paul Adams, my reincarnation is finally complete.
Little more than a week ago we launched Kolab Systems AG, the new home of the Kolab Groupware Solution. Why Kolab? Because despite its being in production for several years, I am convinced its design is still well ahead of any other solution in the market. It is purely Free Software and unlike other solutions it already has a strong and vibrant ecosystem involving various of the best Free Software communities, not the least KDE and Kontact, the primary Kolab client. But Kolab also integrates with other clients, scales extremely well, and provides end-to-end security and privacy by design.
In short: Extremely interesting technology, fantastic people to work with, a strong community and many new and exciting business opportunities were what ultimately led me to take up this challenge over others that were offered.
So after spending the past decade working for the freedom of our community and society in general through software that enables society and economy, after helping multiple entrepreneurs over the years to set up their Free Software business in ways compatible with community principles, I will now myself join the ranks of those that walk the paths created and maintained by organisations such as Free Software Foundation Europe and make this freedom practice for our partners and customers.
There is no question in my mind this is once more going to be a huge amount of work, which is why I fully expect to find lasting happiness:
“The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
— Albert Camus
The downside is that we’ll see how much time I’ll find for writing. I promise I’ll try.
