Previously we offered non-commercial organizations free unlimited usage of Enfold Desktop.  After having found numerous commercial companies using Enfold Desktop without purchasing licenses.  We have decided to add licensing to the software and give everyone five (5) free licenses.  Regardless of status everyone can use Enfold Desktop free of charge for up to five users.  We will work with NGO's on a case by case basis if we are going to offer them more than 5 licenses.

    Enfold Desktop compliments our other Windows products (Enfold Server and Enfold Proxy) which enable organizations to have a commercial vendor behind their Plone installation.  Enfold Systems is committed to lowering the bar for the adoption of the Plone CMS on the Windows platform throughout the world.  Effortless installation and risk free evaluation are some of our guiding software principles.

    This blog entry is not about pushing our software as much as letting people know that there is now a Desktop integration available for the Plone CMS (you can use our commercial Enfold Server or open source Plone).  I hope our Desktop integration provides a means for persons to evagelise Plone inside their organizations in a more persuasive way.  Seeing is believing.  And if they want to use our software for ease of evaluation and helps them spread Plone (even if they dont purchase it in the end) -- then we will have done our job.  We want to lower the bar for evaluation and consideration of the Plone CMS.

    Lastly the technological parts that make Enfold Desktop interesting and more relevent to the community.  The first one (which should be embraced by the entire Python community) is that Enfold Desktop is built 100% in the Python programming language.  Our extensions to win32com (Python library) to enable Shell Extensions have been used by numerous companies and some have told me in private they really appreciate the wrapping of these Windows API.  I simply want to say "Thank you for the feedback."

    The benefit of Plone 3.0 and beyond for consultants and communtiy is the plug-in architecture for Enfold Desktop.  Upon release of Desktop 3.0 - we will invest into some sample code.  We have released some sample code already that demonstrates auto-save capabilities in Enfold Desktop.  Other code and examples we have are enforcing metadata when content is Drag n Drop'ed into Desktop and/or created through Desktop.  We want to document the architecture and we believe people will find it so powerful that they will be able to solve unique business problems for their clients that only Enfold Desktop with its flexibility can offer.

    Don't hesitate to drop me a line.  alan at enfoldsystems is my email.  And remember to sign up the Seattle Plone Conference 2006.  Finally go to http://www.enfoldsystems.com/ to download 3.0 beta and remember to give us your feedback on the desktop community mailing list!