We are proud to recall that four years ago today, the first official release of eBox Platform was launched. The development of the Open Source Small Business Server that was started in early 2004 and aimed at offering SMBs easy network management has come long way since and has reached a potential few could imagine.

After five years of intense development work and approximately 200.000 lines of code that integrate over 20 open source network management tools in one single platform, eBox is currently not only an enterprise level network management solution, but what is more, enables Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Value Added Resellers (VARs) to offer a full set of eBox based network management and outsourcing services for SMBs all over the globe.

Included in Ubuntu since 2007, an estimate of 40,000 active installations, currently over 8,000 monthly downloads and active community of 2,000 members -both growing at fast pace, make us to believe that eBox Platform is a well-established solution in the open source market and each new release will take us a step closer to our goal of turning eBox into the application of choice for Linux based network management!

eBox Platform development team is glad to announce the release of the first installer for the 1.3 development branch. The main new features include PPPoE support, RADIUS module and Webmail (roundcube) module together with many other minor improvements and bugfixes. You can download eBox 1.3 at: http://www.ebox-platform.com/download/beta

All these features and much more will be available in the next eBox 1.4 stable version that will be out in few months (check the roadmap for additional information). In the meanwhile, you can help us starting to test the eBox 1.3 by reporting bugs or any other issues you consider of importance. Just remember that this is beta software and it is not intended for production use.

Your feedback is very important – Please do not hesitate to report any issues through the eBox Support Forum or eBox Trac.

We’re glad to let you know that HowtoForge has just published the article “Using eBox As Windows Primary Domain Controller“. This tutorial shows you step by step how to use eBox as Windows Primary Domain Controller and at the end of it, you will be using eBox Platform 1.2 for users and shared resources management on your Windows domain.