At this point, I think it is safe to assume that Microsoft's acquisition of Yahoo is inevitable. The only question is how long and how ugly the takeover gets. Perhaps this is just wishful thinking, but I would not necessarily jump to the conclusion that this means certain death for Zimbra. I see two scenarios which Zimbra can survive.
- MS is forced by regulators to spin off Zimbra as a condition of the acquisition. This scenario would obviously be the best option for Zimbra's long term viability.
- MS either decides to or is forced to continue development of Zimbra. MS can take advantage of Zimbra's market and make it a profit center similarly to the Macintosh business unit within Microsoft. In this scenario, I would expect to see an immediate priority Windows server port. The downside here is that over time I would expect that support for non-windows platforms (ie. linux server support, Firefox browsers, blackberries, etc.) could suffer in favor on MS offerings.
While, the likelihood that MS simply kills Zimbra is strong I would not dismiss the possibilities above.
If that online petition ever gets completed and has enough response to get noticed, perhaps that could help.
Let's keep our fingers crossed that the "borg" doesn't have its way with perhaps the best Exchange alternative out there.
Cliff