[appsuite-announce] Open-Xchange releases OX App Suite v7.4.1 and OX 6 v6.22.5

[Open-Xchange App Suite Maintenance Announcements]

Dear Customers and Partners of Open-Xchange,

Open-Xchange is pleased to announce the release of OX App Suite v7.4.1 and Open-Xchange Server 6 v6.22.5.

The main improvements for this release of OX App Suite are improved web frontend design and usability enhancements for all applications.

An overview of all improvements for OX App Suite, Open-Xchange Server 6 backend and the new OX Connectors can be found at http://software.open-xchange.com/products/appsuite/doc/Feature_Overview_OXAppSuite_7_4_1.pdf

Open-Xchange has created an announcement list for details relating to upcoming releases and all other information relevant to OX App Suite. You can subscribe to appsuite-announce at open-xchange.com at the link below: https://lists.open-xchange.com/mailman/listinfo/appsuite-announce or directly at the Open-Xchange License Database.

Changes relevant for Administrators:

- Open-Xchange encourages administrators to update regularly to the latest available release. An overview of the latest supported Major, Minor and Public Patch Releases can be found in the Knowledgebase at http://oxpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=AppSuite:Version_Support_Committment. In order to ensure a stable and up to date environment please note the different supported versions.

- Open-Xchange would also like to inform you that session migration is not possible between OX App Suite v7.4.0 and v7.4.1. The open-xchange-secret cookie gets salted starting with OX App Suite v7.4.1. Therefore, user sessions will get lost when updating and restarting nodes that contain the session. Please be aware that in a Hazelcast cluster all sessions will remain as long as at least one node of the old cluster is still running. This means that after the update you may experience an increase in the number of sessions, as the old ones  expire after one week (default value). If you want to avoid this increase you need to either stop all machines in the cluster at once, or you need to remove all the session with the closesessions command.

Important - Please Note:

- Open-Xchange would like to provide you with early notification of an upcoming name change for one of our modules, OX Files. As part of our product strategy we are currently developing clients for different desktop and mobile devices to provide improved file handling and synchronization. During development it became clear that a change of name would better reflect customer expectations of the features and functionality provided by OX Drive and provide greatest consistency and clarity for users across devices. The name change from OX Files to OX Drive is planned for January 2014.

- Open-Xchange will discontinue Connector for Business Mobility support for Windows Mobile 6, 6.5, Symbian (Mail for Exchange 3.x), Apple iPhone iOS 5 and Blackberry with the major release of OX App Suite v7.6.0, planned for April 2014. Further information about the supported platforms are available at http://oxpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=AppSuite:OX_System_Requirements#Mobility_Solution_-_Supported-_Platforms.2C_Features_and_Devices

- Open-Xchange will discontinue Support for AJP based communication between the HTTP server and the OX backend server with the next major release of OX App Suite v7.6.0, planned for April 2014. Open-Xchange already provides a new HTTP connector, which is based on the Grizzly project. Download and configuration instructions are available at http://oxpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=AppSuite:Grizzly. Starting with the release in April 2014, the current AJP based communication will no longer be supported. We encourage administrators to update to the latest Grizzly implementation.

- Open-Xchange will discontinue OX App Suite web frontend support for Internet Explorer 9 with the major release of OX App Suite v7.6.0, planned for April 2014. Starting with this release Open-Xchange will officially support Internet Explorer 11.

- Open-Xchange will discontinue Open-Xchange Server 6 and OX App Suite calendar and contact synchronization (CalDAV/CardDAV) support for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) with the major release of OX App Suite v7.6.0, planned for April 2014.

Shipped packages and versions:
- Open-Xchange App Suite: Version 7.4.1-Rev 5 (built 2013-11-20)
- Open-Xchange 6 GUI: Version 6.22.5-Rev 5 (built 2013-11-20)
- OX Connector for Microsoft Outlook: Version 7.2.3
- Open-Xchange Notifier: Version 1.0.5
- Open-Xchange Client Updater: Version 6.18.23

Complete Release Notes can be found at:
- Open-Xchange App Suite v7.4.1: http://software.open-xchange.com/products/appsuite/doc/Release-Notes-v7.4.1.pdf
- Open-Xchange Server 6 v6.22.5: http://software.open-xchange.com/OX6/6.22/doc/Release-Notes-v7.4.1.pdf

For details of how to install and update OX App Suite please refer to the instructions given at http://oxpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=AppSuite:UpdatingOXPackages 

For Open-Xchange Server 6 update please follow the instructions given at http://oxpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=UpdatingOXPackages#Updating_Open-Xchange_Server_Packages_6.22.x to install the updates.

Best regards,
Your Open-Xchange Team

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Open-Xchange AG, Rollnerstr. 14, 90408 Nürnberg
Amtsgericht Nürnberg HRB 24738
Vorstand: Rafael Laguna de la Vera, Carsten Dirks
Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender: Richard Seibt