Today's Deep-Dive: SOGo

All right, everybody. Welcome back. We are doing a deep dive today and I'm so

excited about this one. Oh yeah, this is a good one. Sogo. Sogo. And, uh,

Sogo is an open source platform.

It's aiming to bring email and collaboration tools to everyone.

Right. Not just like big corporations and stuff. Exactly. Yeah.

So imagine, I mean, if you can just imagine like having the same kind of robust

system that, you know, these huge companies use, right.

But it's totally free and you can customize it. Yeah. I mean,

that's kind of the promise of Sogo.

It is.

And it's a really fascinating concept of the idea that open source software can

level the playing field and it can give individuals and organizations more

control over the technology that they use. Yeah, it's really cool. And so,

I mean,

one of the things that jumped out at me right away when I went to the Sogo

website, it says it's been used in environments with thousands of users.

Yeah. That's not just like, you know,

it's setting up an email account for your grandma or something. Right. Yeah.

That's serious business. When they talk about thousands of users,

we're talking about scalability, you know,

it needs to be able to handle a large number of users and a really heavy

workload without, you know, bogging down or having performance issues. Right.

Think about like a large nonprofit with, you know,

hundreds of volunteers all needing to communicate and collaborate.

Sogo can handle that. Yeah. And you wouldn't have to pay for, you know,

expensive enterprise software. Exactly. So that's awesome.

But, uh, okay. So we can handle all that stuff,

but what does it actually like to use on a daily basis? Right. I mean,

cause it says here rich Ajax based web interface.

Okay. That's a little techie for me. Yeah. That sounds a little jargony.

What does that even mean? Well, basically Ajax it allows Sogo to update things

like your inbox in real time. Okay. So you see new messages right away.

You don't have to hit refresh every time. Oh, that's cool. Yeah.

So you're not waiting for the whole page to reload every time you do something.

It's a lot smoother of an experience. Got you.

So it's more like the instant chat that we're used to as opposed to like old

school text messaging. Yeah, that's cool. I like that. Okay, cool. Yeah. So, um,

one of the other things that I noticed when I was going through this stuff is

just like, I get a little overwhelmed by acronyms, right?

It seems like every other word is an acronym, but you know, call dev,

card dab, group, Davie, all that stuff. And then of course the big one,

Microsoft active sync. Right. So like how does Sogo handle this complexity of,

you know, people using Apple products, some people are using Microsoft.

Like how does that all work?

That's a really important point. And it looks like Sogo's done its homework here.

You know, when we talk about compatibility, you know,

ensuring that your information is going to stay in sync across all your devices,

you know, you don't want to be wondering,

do I have the latest version of this calendar appointment? Right.

So these protocols that they've listed, you know,

things like CalDef for calendars, CardDefy for contacts,

that ensures that everything's talking to each other and working smoothly.

Actives and compatibility is really important for folks who are using a lot of

Microsoft products. You know, if you're heavily integrated into that world,

this makes the transition to Sogo a lot easier,

but it is worth noting that some features may not work exactly the same way as

they do in Outlook or, you know, a native Microsoft environment.

So it's not going to be like identical, but

it's not going to be a hundred percent identical,

but it's going to be pretty darn close. Okay, cool. All right. So, you know,

this all sounds really awesome, but I'm just wondering,

are there any trade-offs to using open source software?

That's a really good question. Because, you know,

like I think about things like security updates. Yeah. Like who's doing that.

Or, you know, technical support. Like if I run into a problem, who do I call?

Well, those are all valid concerns.

And it is true that while open source software can be incredibly powerful and

really cost effective, you know,

it often requires a little bit more technical know-how to get it set up and to

maintain it.

You're not necessarily going to have a dedicated support hotline to call like

you would with, you know, a paid software product.

But the beauty of open source is that there is usually a very vibrant community

of users and developers who are very passionate about the project,

and they're often willing to help out. Cool. And when it comes to security,

the open source nature of the software actually means that a lot more people are

looking at the code.

So vulnerabilities are often found and patched much quicker than they are

in closed source software. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. So it's a bit of a trade off,

you know? Yeah. But I think the benefits of open source often outweigh those.

Okay, cool. I like that. So, um, one other thing I noticed when I was on the

website, they have a try online demo link. Yeah,

that's awesome. Which I think is super cool.

I always think it's good to try before you commit. Oh, absolutely.

Especially when you're talking about something as important as, you know,

your email and your collaboration tools. Exactly.

Especially if you're thinking about like, you know,

switching your whole business over to this, right?

You want to make sure that it's going to work for your needs. Exactly.

So that demo is a great way to kind of test drive it. Yeah, totally.

It's like taking a car for a test drive before you buy it. Exactly. That's awesome.

All right, cool. So I think we've covered a lot of ground here. Yeah, I think so

too.

And if you are looking for a really powerful email and collaboration suite,

yeah, that's not crazy expensive. Right.

So go might be worth a deep dive of your own. Yeah, absolutely.

And what's really exciting to me about this whole concept of open source

software is that it goes beyond just saving money. Yeah. You know,

it's really about having control over the technology that you use,

having transparency, being able to actually shape the tools that you use to

communicate and collaborate. Right. I mean,

imagine being able to contribute to a project like SoGo and actually tailor it

to your specific needs. Yeah. That's really the beauty of open source.

That's so cool. I love that. All right, everybody.

And we will catch you next time. See ya.

And we will catch you next time. See ya.