Zimbra

Zimbra Collaboration Suite 5.0 GA came out today or was it yesterday / last year? After reading the release notes(PDF) and doing a complete backup, I upgraded both my work and personal Zimbra servers. I have been using Zimbra for as my work and personal email server for... oh... something close to two years now. Over that time there have been a number of upgrades and they have always gone smoothly.

What's new with Zimbra 5.0?

Well, you could read the release notes to see, but I'll give a brief summary of some of the things that stand out in my mind:

• Briefcase - A file storage area with a nice file manager
• Tasks - Create to-do lists and manage tasks through to completion
• Instant Messaging - Beta - User to user chat
• More sharing - Mail folders can be shared, new HTTP calendar sharing, share Briefcase files
• Documents - Now out of beta... online text and spreadsheet documents
• Faster login - They split up the javascript into functional pieces so you don't have to load everything at login time
• Little touches - folder summaries, public or private calendar entries, updated help system, email priorities, enhanced tagging, and automatic http to https redirection

Zimbra DesktopZimbra announced Zimbra Desktop today. What is it? Good question. Basically, it is Zimbra Server stripped down to run on your desktop... that will sync with your account on a Zimbra Server and download all of your email, contacts, and calendars... for offline reading.

I guess they could have created a completely new email client but they opted to have you run a local web server/service and connect to it with your browser (port 7366 by default). More...