FW Editor: phlyMail is your first important software and a successful one as well. Can you tell us a few things about the concept behind phlyMail
Matthias Sommerfeld: It started as a simple Webmailer, which directly acted upon a POP3 mailbox to have convenient access to my emails from any browser. Over the years it evolved into a group-ware solution, which enables users to have all their information in one place.

FW Editor: phlyMail is available in two versions: phlyMail Lite and phlyMail Message Center. Which are the main differences between these two versions?
Matthias Sommerfeld: phlyMail Lite is our contribution to Open Source - it offers almost all features, a user of MessageCenter has available. phlyMail MessageCenter adds everything necessary for managing large amounts of users with a single installation. Additionally it allows to reflect an organization's structure of departments and teams by corresponding groups. Each group and each user can have individual permissions assigned.

FW Editor: It is possible to upgrade phlyMail Lite to Message Center? If yes, how can a user do that?
Matthias Sommerfeld: Yes, it's easy. All a user has to do is to obtain a licence of phlyMail MessageCenter through our online shop at http://phlymail.com/ and afterwards install the MessageCenter files like a simple software update. One does not need to do a fresh installation.

FW Editor: Can you tell us a few things about the hosting service? Is there any limit (in size) of how many documents can be stored?
Matthias Sommerfeld: The hosting service is not available to the public right now, but will be online again once we find a competent partner to team up with.

FW Editor: phlyMail comes with a powerful files manager. Can you tell us more about the files management possibilities? It is possible to create group of files and search through these groups using keywords or filters?
Matthias Sommerfeld: Right now the files manager is rather basic in terms of features. It allows to organize files in groups, has a nice preview for image files, offers MP3 playback and allows to download files into the files manager form external URLs. But we have much more in mind. In a future release we wish to offer editors for files (text files, maybe even office documents), a video player, web shares, an image gallery, ...

FW Editor: What would you like to add in phlyMail in the future? Is there any feature you have in mind for a future update?
Matthias Sommerfeld: Well, the list of plans is already rather lengthy by now. First of all we will add the missing pieces for the group-ware part, e.g. shares for the groups. Then we wish to add tags and ratings for all elements (mails, calendar entries, contacts, files, ...). Our primary goal is to keep phlyMail easy to use, so maybe a few features will only be available as optional add-ons, so only users, who need them see them.

FW Editor: phlyMail supports various add-ons and extensions which are not delivered with the default product. How can a phlyMail user download and install these add-ons?
Matthias Sommerfeld: Most of them are easily obtained by just ordering them from our website http://phlymail.com/ and copy them into the installation afterwards. The installation process usually takes just a few minutes. The same applies to the themes, which just need to be copied into the right location within the installation and are instantly available afterwards.