Yahoo! spruces open source Exchange rival
Zimbra 6.0 shrugs off sale talk
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Amidst rumors that Yahoo! is looking to sell the company, Zimbra has released a new version of its Exchange-battling open source email and collaboration platform.
Available beginning today, version 6.0 of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite adds several administrator and mobile tools as well as countless tweaks to the client interface. This includes client-side changes meant to facilitate the addition of Zimlets, those community-created mini-apps that hook into outside web services. With one Zimlet, for instance, you can instantly open a Yahoo! map when a street address turns up in your inbox.
"We want to continue to raise the bar of what you can do with Zimlets and lower the bar in terms of the programming expertise you need to have to build the integration points," Zimbra general manager Jim Morrisroe tells The Reg. Users can download these mini-apps from a public repository or build their own.
The Zimbra Collaboration Suite installs as an Exchange-like in-house server, but it's also available as a hosted service from third-party partners. You can then tap the server from an AJAX-based browser client, a downloadable Zimbra Desktop client, various mobile clients, or third-party clients such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Apple clients. According to Zimbra, the platform is now used by over 100,000 organizations across the globe, boasting more than 50 million paid mailboxes.
You can also opt for the free open-source version of the server, available under the Yahoo! Public License, née the Zimbra Public License. The license requires a Zimbra logo on the web client, and according to Morrisroe, about five per cent of the tools available with the paid version of the product are missing from the open source incarnation. This includes Zimbra's integrated back-up tool and the ability to sync with mobile and third-party clients.
Named for a nonsensical Talking Heads song, Zimbra was acquired by Yahoo! in September of 2007 for around $350m. The company now operates from offices on Yahoo!'s campus in Sunnyvale, California, and its technology underpins Yahoo!'s web-based Mail and Calendar services. But according to a recent report from All Things Digital, the web/advertising giant is shopping the outfit to potential buyers, as CEO Carol Bartz looks to streamline her operations.
Morrisroe declined to address the rumors, but he emphasized the "tight collaboration" between his engineering team and the teams behind the consumer-focused Yahoo! Mail and Calendar.
In all, Zimbra's 6.0 release includes roughly 50 new server and client tools, including everything from an Outlook-like three-pane interface that lets you compose messages in separate tabs to an admin tool for remotely wiping sensitive info from Zimbra mobile clients. Morrisroe describes many of these as "blocking and tackling" additions, small changes such the addition of a mandatory spell checker or the ability to print multiple messages. You can browse a complete list here (PDF). ®
COMMENTS
And this is why I haven't installed Zimbra
"The license requires a Zimbra logo on the web client, and according to Morrisroe, about five per cent of the tools available with the paid version of the product are missing from the open source incarnation. This includes Zimbra's integrated back-up tool and the ability to sync with mobile and third-party clients"
I must admit, I looked at Zimbra to replace my mailing system at home (Linux mailserver, Thunderbird client, with outlook to sync my mobile's contacts and calendar). I would love to be able to ditch the above and replace it with a system which allows me to read my email via a web-browser, stores all my emails in a centralised database/files (I have several accounts over many providers and like having to only log into one system to read them) and still sync my phone data for backup/updates.
Having to purchase an enterprise-level licence to do so has put me off using Zimbra.
to @Ysean and @Pete
I don't want to interrupt your fight, but cost of the software is really not the most important part when it comes to overall ROI.
Don't forget to include cost of OS, hardware and admin cost as well. Not to mention client app cost including deployment and maintenance and overall features which save employees time.
I'm not saying anything which one is cheaper, but to argue about price solely based on per user license is far from accurate view.
@Pete
Or, you're just another ignorant and arrogant open source/anti-ms ass. Zimbra's cost for a perpetual license for 50 clients is $80.98/client. Its pricing stays on the same scale regardless of clients up to 500 clients. Whereas Exchange Server software is $699 and is always $699 regardless of clients. You only have to pay for the CALs. This in turn makes Exchange cheaper.
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