Last month, BitDefender (www.BitDefender.com) made a couple substantial Linux product announcements. First, it released version 1.6.2 of its BitDefender for Samba Linux File Servers product. As part of the new release, the company released parts of the updated product under an Open Source license. The specific code now covered under GPL is their antivirus (VFS) engine for Samba.

Asked what motivated the decision, BitDefender product marketing manager Alexandru Balan said, "Customer and community requests. At LinuxWorld Expo in Boston we received several requests from members of the community for access to our VFS engine. We made the case to development and to management, we got a 'yes,' and so we did it."

Both BitDefender customers as well as the Open Source community at large should benefit from this move. BitDefender customers can now recompile the VFS for Samba code against any Samba version. And the community can build on BitDefender's expertise by leveraging its VFS engine to secure Samba installations generally.

Getting the Open Source code is a matter of going to the company's web site, navigating to the Linux tab, and then selecting Linux File Server Protection. Complete the download form for a free trial version of the product, and part of what you get will be the Open Source VFS code, which you can isolate and extract by following the instructions in the accompanying documentation. When the free trial period ends, only the commercial product times out, you keep the GPL code as BitDefender's gift to you - and there's no postage or handling charge.

Last month BitDefender also announced a new Linux mail server product targeted at small businesses and businesses with tight IT budgets. The new product, BitDefender Mail Protection for Small Business (free trial download available at bitdefender.com) provides advanced content inspection that works with any Linux distribution and most of the popular Linux mail servers, including Sendmail, Sendmail with Milter interface, Postfix, qmail, CommuniGate Pro, and Courier and they have an SMTP Proxy for any other MTA. The licensing model is per-user, per year, with 10, 25, 50, 100, etc. user licenses available, and annual list per-user fees under $35. E-mail sales@bitdefender.us for pricing details.

The product is designed to be easy to install while still delivering excellent performance. "The BitDefender Advanced Linux Installer Script Engine (ALISE) auto-detects the system configuration, pulls any necessary packages from the network, detects installed mail servers and recommends the appropriate agent(s) to be used. The agent(s) chosen are then installed automatically...no delving through config files is required, or indeed advisable," Mr. Balan said.