[kevindods]

Wonder if anyone at Yahoo (nee Zimbra) can confirm what forks would be possible with the Zimbra Code? Open Source does not equal Free (speech) software, can we take anything from the source that has been open and use it anywhere eles? The license was based on the Mozilla license and it was possible for Debian to convert the source for Firefox to IceWeasel and free the code. My reading of the Zimbra license is that this is not possible - can anyone with knowledge confirm that assertion?

As to the likely future, if you were a large hosting/marketing company with ageing mail systems and were at a competitive disadvantage - $350m dollars is a low cost way of reversing that disadvantage and removing a route for other future competition. They could just sit on the knowledge and the product and still readily justify the acquisition to the board.

The real drivers for a deal like this are the VCs not the employees or directors, CEOs etc. For young companies with significant high risk capital in them, even if they are doing well and have met targets, the VCs hold the company by the short n curlies.

There are no certainties in this life and it isn't/can't be known for certain whether this deal will be good or bad. In fact there probably isnt a simple good or bad, it is probably far too grey and indistinct an outcome to use such black and white terms.

The problem we have here as customers is we don't know the 'real' motives for the Yahoo! move. We felt we knew the Zimbra staff and management were geared to succeed with the software as they had personal commitment to success, demonstrated in the forums, development and support apart from the obvious monetary drives common to us all. They can now measure that success in terms of this deal and feel justified that they have produced a good product, so for them I am glad to say it must be a good deal.

From senior and middle positions I have had experience of a fair number of acquisitions, mergers, divestments etc and all the euphemisms applied to such activities. They often are not done for the sentiments publicly expressed, they are often not very successful, they are difficult to manage and from a corporate culture perspective often very stressful.

I hear the comments from staff and management and I understand that they themselves need to feel confident that their environments are not about to be made uncomfortable and no one wants to see Zimbra slide to obscurity or pervert to something far away from the original intentions.

The real problem is that you now have no control, ownership or influence other than that which you gain from understanding the real percieved value and motives of Yahoo! Zimbra is no longer what it was because you no longer have control of the code. All the talk and platitudes have no real currency when spoken from this point in the deal.

Perhaps even Yahoo! hasnt determined what to do yet. $350m is £175m and that is not really big money for Yahoo! It is good for the VCs who pumped in $30 (£15m) and the staff/management who had shares, they get some cash based financial compensation to comfort them if things go bad for them. Yahoo! could sit and let Zimbra run to v5 and then take time to consider where their best interest lie. So for 12-18months there is no need to change anything indeed changing anything significant for any acquisition would be a folly as it can take that long to get to understand it and prepare it for change.

What is sad from my perspective is that I settled for a product that appeared open but not free and I think the lesson here is that this type of hybrid license and product does not in itself provide the benefits most users imagined it would. Yes fast development, growing company but the core of open and free is the essential guarantor for the user and still seen as a 'problem' to some commercial authors.

I think I have learned that you have to really believe in Free as well as Open at the core or the thing risks becoming perverted when it rubs the old or traditional commercial world. All the other OSS collaboration servers have been/originated or became old style commercial software houses looking for a way forward. Unless there is a real FOSS attempt I think this scenario will keep repeating.