SME History


e-Smith Server History

SME Server was originally called "e-smith server and gateway" and was created as open-source software by the folks at e-Smith, Inc. (originally Powerframe Internetworking), founded by Joseph and Kim Morrison in early 1999. The software, based on Red Hat's popular Linux offering, quickly gained a reputation for simplicity and reliability, and a loyal following. e-Smith, Inc, was purchased by Mitel, Inc. in mid-2001, and the software, renamed SME Server v5 with ServiceLink, went through several revisions as they enhanced and extended it with many professional features to fit within their product line of small business telephone systems and vertical-market software. The SME community, which has always included many computer consultant companies, has also enhanced SME server with features requested by their customers, and then contributed them back to the community.

In late 2003 Mitel ceased active development of the software, and generously contributed its core additions, enhancements, documentation, forums, etc., to the community, enabling us to start out with the full benefit of 5+ years of experience with SME Server. Many of the community members here at contribs.org have been involved with SME Server for years.

An account of the early days

From an email to devinfo forum (10Feb2004) from Peter Samuel (Thanks, Peter!)

The e-smith Server & Gateway (now known as SME Server) was the brain child of Joe Morrison. He founded e-smith inc. Joe released his original code in the late 1990s (1999 if I remember correctly). Charlie Brady saw it and realised it would be a good fit as a server platform for various charitable and non-profit organisations to which he was donating his time and services (along with others including Gordon Rowell and myself). One of these charities was Community Aid Abroad (the Australian arm of Oxfam). The e-smith Server and Gateway was deployed in their Sydney office (replacing a previous Linux system maintained by Charlie, Gordon and myself as well as CAA staff). CAA was also working in East Timor and a version of the e-smith Server & Gateway was deployed in their East Timor site (with a number of modifications to support satellite modems and UUCP mail transport[1]).

During this time, Charlie and Gordon made contributions, modifications and bug fixes available to Joe. Gordon and I deployed the software in other commercial sites and CAA began rolling it out into their other offices across Australia. Joe was building up a strong customer base from Ottawa. Eventually, Joe was able to secure venture captial funding and began employing staff in early 2000. The company known as e-smith, inc was acquired by Mitel Networks in June 2001. The name of the product was changed to SME Server (it had other names during the transition but that's not really important here). A new revenue model was adopted[2] (ServiceLink) and over the next 2 years the focus/direction of the commercial product changed to incorporate more telephony features (Mitel is in the telephone business after all). In late 2003, Mitel decided to cease further commercial development of the product and transferred control of the GPL community infrastructure (the forums and lists etc) to the "devinfo" community.

Obviously this is a much abbreviated history. It may contain a couple of time line errors, but the information is factually correct to the best of my recollections.

[1] qmail was/is still used but remote transport was/is handled via uucp as it is more bandwidth friendly. Satellite modems cost money to run!

[2] The ServiceLink model was developed and originally coded before the acquisition but wasn't fully utilised until after the acquisition.

An account of the East Timor effort (PDF, page 6)

From an email to Ideas and Opinions forum (10Feb2004) from Gordon Rowell (Thanks, Gordon!)

"Email to Dili - you have got to be joking!", from Charlie and Gordon:


Version History

 Date   Version 
 April 1999   Version 2.02 
 August 1999   Version 3.0 
 November 1999   Version 3.1 
 July 2000   Version 4.0 
 November 2000   Version 4.0.1 
 February 2001   Version 4.1 
 February 2001   Version 4.1.1 
 March 2001   Version 4.1.2 
 Sept 2001   Version 5.0 
 January 2002   Version 5.1.2 
 July 2002   Version 5.5 
 January 2003   Version 5.6 
 December 2003   Version 6.0 
 March 2004   Version 6.0.1 
 ? 2005   Version 6.5 

Click on the links to see the readme or release notes for each version.
Mirrors Links


Organizational History

 Date   Occurrence 
 February 1999   Company founded (e-Smith, Inc.) 
 May 2000   Staff = 5 
 June 2000   $3M Redhat and Greylock investments 
 July 2000   Staff = 18 
 September 2000   New V.P., new Director 
 October 2000   Staff = 25 
 December 2000   New V.P. 
 July 2001   Bought by Mitel 
 November 2003   Mitel transitions SME Server into public development status 
 January 2004   Contribs.org begins community development phase. Web site hosted by Resource Strategies. 
 September 2004   Lycoris takes over web site hosting. Web site is moved by Ruffdogs. 
 December 2004   Lycoris ceases development efforts and site hosting 
 December 2004   Resource Strategies takes over site hosting 
 April 2005   Developers decided to move to Sourceforge 
 June 2005   Ruffdogs takes over web site hosting and posts the Social Contract 




Team Members (1999 - 2003 inclusive)

From a list compiled by Peter Samuel (if anyone is missing, please add, or let us know)

    Rebecca Anstett   Stephen Beamish   Shari Black 
    Michael Brader   Charlie Brady   Steve Brand 
    Sheila Burpee Duncan   Adrian Chung   Rob Clarke 
    Tony Clayton   Damien Curtain   Andre Danis 
    Lijie Deng   Mike Dickson   Yaser Elbatnigi 
    Linda Faust   Lisa Graziadei   Emily Gregory 
    Geoff Halprin   Pelly Heighton   Chris Houle 
    Brett Jensen   Julie Jespersen   Micheal Kelly 
    Mark Knox   Rich Lafferty   Ross Laver 
    Jennifer Laycox   Bob Le Sueur   Jenn MacInnis 
    Brian Martin   Jimena Martinez   Heather McCann 
    Maureen McCann   Dan McGarry   Tim Mcguire 
    Jason Miller   Erin Minogue   Michael Moir 
    Joseph Morrison   Kim Morrison   Linda Murphy Holmes 
    Paul Nesbit   Alejandro Osorio   Roderick Paterson 
    Nelson Pereira   David Pipkins   Trevor Poole 
    Karl Raffelsieper   Kathy Rasmussen   Alex Reid 
    Kirrily Robert   Eric Robichaud   Lynn Rockburn 
    Tyson Roffey   Matthew Rose   Gordon Rowell 
    Susan Saliba   Peter Samuel   Michael Schwern 
    Michael Soulier   Zac Sprackett   Lisa Spreen 
    Chris Stewart   Leanne Stinson   Steve Viens 
    Jesse Vincent   John Whyte   Dan York 




Historical Links

e-smith
e-smith.org - The original e-smith developer's site. No longer available.
powerframe.com/e-smith - Joseph Morrison's account of the founding and history of e-smith.

Mitel
Acq FAQ
(Note: The Mitel documents about the e-smith acquisition have mostly disappeared during a revamp of their website)
The 6000 MAS Product - The latest commercial version (2003), the 6000 MAS is SME Server's sister server from Mitel Networks.

contribs.org
Contribs.org announce - Jeff Coleman announces the formation of contribs.org
The Announcement - Dan York announces that Mitel Networks will cease active development on SME Server.
Contribs.org's view of the future - Jeff Coleman describes the early plans for the SME distro.
SME Server 6.0.1-01 .iso available - Contribs.org makes .iso file of new version of SME Server available. DiffsMitelToContribs
SME Server joins the Lycoris open-source family - Jeff Coleman announces the next phase in the evolution of the SME Server.
contribs.org : 100,000 forum posts on contribs.org!