{"id":667,"date":"2026-09-06T12:31:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T15:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.linuxpro.com.br\/2026\/09\/a-historia-do-otrs\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T11:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:51:07","slug":"a-historia-do-otrs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.linuxpro.com.br\/en\/2026\/09\/a-historia-do-otrs\/","title":{"rendered":"The history of OTRS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mascote<\/p>\n

OTRS was born as Open Ticket Request System<\/em>. Then it became Open Technology Real Services, then just the four letters. What has not changed in twenty-five years is the core: Perl<\/strong>, queues, email becoming tickets. In 2026, the commercial name belongs to EasyVista; the free code lives on in forks. Below is the timeline, without the folklore of \u201cfree German ITIL.\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

STTS, SUSE, 0.5<\/h2>\n

At the end of the 90 decade, SUSE had an internal ticket system called STTS<\/strong>. It worked. The source belonged to the company. Martin Edenhofer joined that team \u2014 then moved to Lufthansa, which would become one of the first large customers of what he would write. In September 2001, in a German shared apartment, the conversation about \u201cwhat we would do if STTS were free\u201d became a project. The name OTRS, according to those in the room, existed mainly because the four-letter domain was still available. GPL, no discussion.<\/p>\n

The first public release is 0.5, 9 April 2002<\/strong>: the core runs. Version 1.0, 14 February 2003<\/strong>, after two years of Perl, is the stable release. CGI, MySQL, queues. A ticket gets a number; an article is the email, phone call, or note. Anyone who has used \/opt\/otrs<\/code> recognizes the feel.<\/p>\n

GmbH, the Perl of Kernel::<\/h2>\n

In 2003, Edenhofer, Andr\u00e9 Mindermann, and Burchard Steinbild (SUSE co-founder) establish OTRS GmbH<\/strong>. BSI \u2014 Germany's federal information security office \u2014 becomes a customer; that leads to SIRIOS, the CERT built on the framework. The code remains Perl. It was not a \u201cweb app with a little Perl\u201d: it was Perl from floor to ceiling.<\/p>\n

The tree admins still find in Znuny follows the same idea as in 2003:<\/p>\n

# \/opt\/otrs\/Kernel\/System\/Ticket.pm\npackage Kernel::System::Ticket;\nuse strict;\nuse warnings;\n\nsub TicketCreate {\n    my ( $Self, %Param ) = @_;\n    # Queue, Customer, Priority, State \u2014 o ticket nasce aqui\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
Kernel::System::*<\/code> is the core. Kernel::Modules::*<\/code> is the agent's screen. Kernel::Output::HTML<\/code> renders it. The frontend started in plain HTML; JavaScript came later and could be disabled. From 4 onward, the template engine is Template Toolkit<\/strong> (.tt<\/code>). Database: MySQL on day one, then PostgreSQL, Oracle, Db2, MSSQL \u2014 4 trimmed it to MySQL\/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and Oracle. In front, Apache with mod_perl<\/code>. Email comes in through PostMaster<\/strong> (Postfix, Sendmail, procmail). The GenericAgent.pl<\/code> closes spam in the queue at three in the morning. Extra packages install through Package Manager, OPM format \u2014 the CPAN of the helpdesk. Running multiple PHP versions on the same host does not apply here: the runtime is Perl 5.<\/p>\n
From 2.0 to 6: ITSM, AGPL, the stock exchange<\/h2>\n
Version 2.0<\/strong> (1\u00ba Aug 2005) brings PGP, S\/MIME, 19 languages, and the package web depot. Version 2.2<\/strong> (2 Jul 2007) adds Service and SLA; that same year brings OTRS::ITSM 1.0<\/strong>, the first open source ITIL ITSM with commercial support. The GmbH becomes OTRS AG<\/strong>. On 23 December 2009<\/strong> the stock debuts on Frankfurt's Entry Standard. Version 2.4<\/strong> (22 Jul 2009) changes the license to AGPL-3<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Version 3.0<\/strong> (15 Nov 2010) redesigns the interface. The Wikimedia Foundation uses OTRS as its Volunteer Response Team \u2014 the \u201cWikipedia OTRS\u201d editors know. Version 4<\/strong> (2014) drops the leading zero, adds Object Manager and flat design. Version 5<\/strong> (2015) is responsive, gains the Daemon, and Windows ceases to be a platform. In 2015, the AG launches OTRS Business Solution<\/strong> (paid modules on top of the free core) and counts 150 thousand installations. Version 6<\/strong> (21 November 2017<\/strong>) is the last Community Edition major: 38 languages, proper time zones. The AG's final patch in this line is 6.0.30, 25 September 2020<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Edenhofer leaves the AG at the end of 2011. In 2012\/2013, he founds Znuny GmbH<\/strong> in Berlin \u2014 consulting on top of the product he had invented. In 2016, another ticket, another stack: Zammad<\/strong>, in Ruby on Rails. Perl stayed with OTRS.<\/p>\n
Community Edition, Christmas 2020<\/h2>\n
In April 2018, the AG announces the shift: what was OTRS + Business Solution becomes ((OTRS)) Community Edition<\/strong> (the free one) and OTRS<\/strong> (the paid one). New features ship first to paying customers; CE would receive them with a delay of roughly two years, then security fixes only. 7 (18 Nov 2018) already follows this line: SPA, Vue.js in the customer portal. 8 (27 Mar 2020) brings the SPA to agents too. Perl remains in the backend; the browser now speaks REST.<\/p>\n
In 23 December 2020<\/strong> the AG's feed announces: Community Edition, including security fixes, ends on 1\u00ba January 2021<\/strong>. Eight days, over Christmas, with no CE 7. On 24 February 2021, the company confirms: CE remains suspended. The technical message in the release notes for 6 was \u201cusing this is high risk.\u201d Wikimedia migrates the Volunteer Response Team to the fork in April 2021 and changes the name: from OTRS to VRT<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
\"Diagrama:<\/p>\n
Znuny, OTOBO, KIX: the fork<\/h2>\n
The code was GPL\/AGPL. The OTRS name was not. Those who kept Perl free had to change the sign.<\/p>\n