ClearOS Community 6.5.0 Final Release Information
Released: December 20, 2013
ClearOS Community 6.5.0 has arrived! Along with the usual round of bug fixes and enhancements, version 6.5.0 introduces Marketplace enhancements, QoS, a Network Detail Report, an Administrators app, Official Amazon EC2 Support, a Software RAID Manager, Mail Archive, Plex Media Server Integration,UPnP Support, an updated Web Server app, as well as new reporting features.
What's New in ClearOS Community 6.5.0
The following is a list of features coming in ClearOS Community 6.5.0.
- Updated Marketplace
- QoS (Beta)
- Updated Web Server app
- Updated reporting engine
Under the hood, some changes were made to support OwnCloud as well as web-based applications (Tiki Wiki, WordPress, Joomla, etc.).
For businesses and organizations, ClearOS Professional 6.5.0 also includes:
The full changelog can be found here:
Feedback
Please post your feedback in the ClearOS Development and Test Release Forum.
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Upgrades for ClearOS 6
ClearOS follows the same release pattern as upstream. There is really only a single “ClearOS 6” version - the minor releases are snapshots in time with bug fixes, enhancements, etc. If your system has automatic updates enabled, your ClearOS system will have transitioned to current stable release. For those with automatic updates disabled, you can install the latest updates via the Software Updates app or from the command line:
yum upgrade
App Highlights
Marketplace
The number of apps available in ClearOS can be a bit overwhelming. The ClearOS 6.5.0 release provides some new Marketplace features to help alleviate the situation. The Marketplace Install Wizard now provides 3 install options for getting through the app selection process:
- For new users, there's a Feature Wizard that steps through various features in ClearOS.
- For veteran users, the Category Wizard displays apps by category (Server, Network, System and Reports) for quickly selecting what's needed.
- For MSPs and consultants, the Quick Select option provides one-step recipes for deploying customer solutions.
In addition, there's a new Layout Manager that lets you choose how you want to view Marketplace apps (see screenshot below). We are still working through some usability issues in the entire install wizard, so feedback is certainly welcome.
ClearOS 5.2 Differences
For ClearOS 6, the barrier for having an app available in the web interface was raised. If the quality or features in ClearOS 5.2 were not up to the standards of a modern small business server/gateway, the feature was either upgraded or deprecated.
Zarafa for ClearOS
The default groupware and mail solution is now based on Zarafa technology.
Horde/Kolab
Horde/Kolab has been deprecated and is no longer supported. This policy may change in a future ClearOS 6 release.
Advanced Firewall
The Advanced Firewall app was marked as deprecated in version 5.2. It is no longer available. The Custom Firewall can be used as an alternative.
Administrators
The Administrators app does not fit into the group-based policy engine in ClearOS 6. The underlying mechanism that existed in ClearOS 5 has been ported to version 6, but it requires command line configuration.
Flexshare Mail Option
The Flexshare mail option was dropped due to incompatibilities with the group system structure. Notably, the option is not compatible when Active Directory Connector or Samba 4 are installed.
IPsec
The Dynamic VPN app provides advanced IPsec support in ClearOS Professional. The unmanaged IPsec tool has been replaced by the 3rd party Static IPsec VPN app. The new app is much more powerful than what was provided in ClearOS 5.x!