CentOS-based SME Server 8.0 arrives

The developers at the SME Server project have released version 8.0 of their specialist server distribution. SME Server is based on CentOS, which clones the sources of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and is aimed at small and medium enterprises (SME). The new release has been in beta since 2009.

The project says that its goal is to provide "a friendly, free alternative to expensive proprietary software" and the distribution comes as a simple to setup system that is preconfigured for file and print sharing, email, network sharing, directory services, and web application serving. The distribution can be extended to add extra functionality via downloadable software packages known as Contribs.

SME Server 8.0 is a major update built on version 5.8 of CentOS; the changes made by the developers to CentOS are listed in the release notes. They include improvements to the backup system, file serving, the optional and still experimental LDAP support, mail server, server manager, updated groupware, web server and added localisations.

The project has also released an update to the 7.x branch of its server distribution, version 7.6, which is based on CentOS 4.8 from August 2009. Version 7.6 of SME Server includes various updates to the file, mail and web servers, backups and installer, as well as localisation updates. Its developers note that this will be the final ISO release for SME 7, adding that only critical updates will now be provided – CentOS 4.x reached its End of Life earlier this year.

A full list of fixes, changes and package upgrades can be found in the 7.6 and 8.0 release notes. Versions 7.6 and 8.0 of SME Server are available to download as ISO images from the project's mirrors and are licensed under the GPL. Online documentation is provided.

(crve)