• Origins
  1. How did it all start?
  2. How did eBox get the funds for its development?
  3. How much effort has it taken to develop eBox?
• Company
  1. What kind of company is eBox Technologies?
  2. I have installed eBox in my organization. How can I get support?
  3. What kind of support is the best for me?
  4. Is support everything that eBox Technologies can offer?
  5. How can I become a partner?
• Product
  1. How does eBox Platform differ from other web UI such as Webmin?
  2. Why do you want to include every kind of functionality? What sense does it make to have an email server installed in the same machine as your firewall?
  3. Why did you choose Ubuntu for the base of a security server like eBox instead of other distribution with a better reputation of stability, such as Debian?
  4. How does eBox manage the security vulnerabilities?
  5. Is it possible to adapt eBox functionality to my own needs?
  6. Can I develop new modules?
  7. What are the minimum hardware requirements to install eBox?
• Community
  1. Is the source code of eBox Platform going to remain open source?
  2. How can I contribute to eBox development?
  3. Is there anything eBox cannot do? Will eBox make me a sandwich?

Origins

1. 

   How did it all start?

   eBox started as a joint project between DBS Servicios Informaticos and Warp Networks back in 2004, to develop an open source platform to ease the administration of corporate networks.

   Warp was in charge of the technical development of eBox, while DBS remained with the tasks of funding and coordinating the project, with the common objective of having an open source functional prototype by December 2005.

   On 1st December 2005 eBox was publicly released, at version 0.7, with some basic functionality such as firewall, content filtering, users and groups, email server or printer sharing. This release also meant the conclusion of the DBS-Warp agreement, leaving the future of eBox uncertain. Once the diverging visions of eBox became clear, Warp took full responsibility for eBox development and funding.
2. 

   How did eBox get the funds for its development?

   During its 4-year-long history, eBox has had very different sources of funding, from public grants to joint projects. Warp Networks has been the most loyal supporter by investing in eBox part of the income earned from its services. Another very important source of funding has been the CDTI through its NEOTEC program, consisting on a soft loan granted to the most innovative projects in Spain.

   Now its development is entirely funded by eBox Technologies, a spin-off from Warp backed by a group of investors and focused solely on eBox.
3. 

   How much effort has it taken to develop eBox?

   Pretty much. You can have a look at ohloh.net and compare their estimations on the effort invested in several open source projects. According to these estimations, eBox is not far from the levels of Apache, Tomcat and Wordpress, and it has invested more effort than Nagios, Ruby on Rails and Firefox.

Company

1. 

   What kind of company is eBox Technologies?

   It is a spin-off from Warp Networks, one of the most important players in the Spanish open source ecosystem. Our vision of the IT world is often summarized as follows: "We belong to the first generation of IT professionals who take open source for granted, who grew and learned in an open environment, who consider open source not just an option but the natural way of developing software" (Javier Uruen, co-founder of Warp and eBox).
2. 

   I have installed eBox in my organization. How can I get support?

   You have basically two options: you can get support from our users community or you can get commercial support from us or any of our partners.

   Community support is fine as long as you respect some basic rules and are ready to do most part of the work by yourself. Before you ask questions from the community, bear in mind that there is no obligation from any part to answer quickly, accurately or even answer at all.

   On the other hand, commercial support entails a commitment to answer timely and accurately to all your questions, in exchange of a reasonable fee. If you are interested in this option you just have to contact us to start discussions.
3. 

   What kind of support is the best for me?

   It depends on your needs. If you deploy eBox in non-critical environments and have the time to learn by trial and error then community support should be fine. If an error in eBox configuration can easily lead to significant losses in working time and money then we would recommend that you get commercial support
4. 

   Is support everything that eBox Technologies can offer?

   Not at all. We can help analyzing your needs and deploying eBox, we can deliver professional training for eBox administrators, we can adapt and extend eBox to suit your needs, ... You can count on us and our partners for anything you need to do with eBox. Just drop us a few lines to start discussions.
5. 

   How can I become a partner?

   Just contact us and describe briefly your company, context, customers and the benefits you expect from being a partner. We will answer promptly.

Product

1. 

   How does eBox Platform differ from other web UI such as Webmin?

   There are several differences between eBox and Webmin-like applications but the most important one is the level of integration between network services. eBox provides an abstraction layer that automates most administration tasks and removes the possibility of making configuration errors. For example, enabling the proxy automatically adds the necessary firewall rules to make it work, without any action required from the system administrator.
2. 

   Why do you want to include every kind of functionality? What sense does it make to have an email server installed in the same machine as your firewall?

   Although nothing stops you to do so, eBox is not intended to be installed with ALL its options active in the same machine, the same way you are not supposed to eat every piece of food offered in an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. eBox' approach is to offer all the functionality that a typical organization needs for the management of its networks, so that it can be better adapted to each one's needs by combining its functionality in different machines and managing the whole infrastructure with a common technology.
3. 

   Why did you choose Ubuntu for the base of a security server like eBox instead of other distribution with a better reputation of stability, such as Debian?

   eBox is based on well tested software, pretty much independent of the Linux distribution. The differences between eBox on Ubuntu and eBox on Debian are minimal from a technical point of view. On the other hand, Ubuntu brings a large, dynamic community and has a much better hardware support, which are very important benefits for eBox. Moreover, Ubuntu's approach to technology, "Linux for Human Beings", is very similar to the eBox' approach. However, we are currently working on keeping eBox available on an updated Debian version.
4. 

   How does eBox manage the security vulnerabilities?

   The security vulnerabilities that affect eBox base system are handled by Ubuntu Server's update policy and corrected in their repositories. Vulnerabilities that affect eBox software are handled by our team and corrected both in our repositories and in Ubuntu's. You can apply these updates either by hand or set eBox to do it automatically at a daily basis, upgrading the software from Ubuntu's and eBox' repositories.
5. 

   Is it possible to adapt eBox functionality to my own needs?

   Yes. If the options by default are not flexible enough for your needs, you can freely access the code and modify it so that eBox can better adapt to your situation. If you prefer to hire these services from professionals, we can help you contact some of our trusted partners who can do the best work for the job.
6. 

   Can I develop new modules?

   Yes. If the modules currently included do not have all the functionality that you need, you can freely access the code and develop new ones. If you prefer to hire these services from professionals, we can help you contact some of our trusted partners who can do the best work for the job.
7. 

   What are the minimum hardware requirements to install eBox?

   It depends mainly on the way you will use eBox. If you just need a firewall for a small office any old machine will do the trick. If you intend to set up a server to handle the routing in a 1,000+ organization in high availability mode, your minimum requirements will probably be quite high.

Community

1. 

   Is the source code of eBox Platform going to remain open source?

   Yes. We truly believe in open source and we are convinced that it is the most advanced methodology to develop software. In our opinion, closing the code is, in most of the cases, an outdated way to work.
2. 

   How can I contribute to eBox development?

   You don't have to be a programmer or a Perl expert to contribute to eBox. In fact, the most common and valuable way of contributing is through other means.
   1) Be sure that you report all the bugs you find. Before you do so, try to ensure that no one has reported it previously by checking in the Forum or the mailing lists.
   2) If you think eBox is missing some features or it can be improved in some way, let us know.
   3) Join eBox translation group and translate its interface into your own language. To become an official translator you just have to ask.
   4) Help improve eBox documentation, for example by writing a howto
   5) If you have your own itch to scratch and want to develop your own module in eBox, be our guest!
3. 

   Is there anything eBox cannot do? Will eBox make me a sandwich?

   Not by default. Maybe if you try with sudo.