[SOLVED] Is zimbra closing down to the community?

[Yann2]

Hello, there used to be two things that I used to find extremely good about Zimbra and that made me believe Zimbra "get it". Both of them have now disappeared and I would love an official reason as I consider those to be huge mistakes.

* The bugzilla used to be open, there were plans, and dates for forecoming releases. This doesn't happen anymore, there are no plans for the release of 6.0.5, 6.0.6, and the development process of 7 is completely closed. This is a MASSIVE step back for planning for me as a customer. For example there is no date planned for 6.0.5, which is the version I want to deploy, I rely on bug counts and average bugs solved a day to get an idea of when I will be able to upgrade...

* It used to be easy to try out Zimbra without inscription. Allowed me to check new features in new releases, show Zimbra to other users, etc. This is now closed and needs registration. Might sound tiny, but it's the business logic behind it that scares me about Zimbra's future.

Especially now with the purchase of Zimbra by Vmware we need commitment to open source and open processes. I for one am very worried about what these strategic changes mean for Zimbra's future.

[phoenix]

Nothing has changed as far as trying Zimbra NE is concerned, it's available for download and the OSS version always was and always will be free and is available for download.

There's also no change to the details of upcoming product releases, it's on the Product Portal and bugzilla is open and publicly visible.

[Yann2]

Hello Phoenix, I am indeed speaking of pm.zimbra.com, sorry if I wasnt clear.

Zimbra Product Portal doesn't show any date for 6.0.5 (which I guess will be out next week at some point).
Trying to access Zimbra Product Portal requires registration, although many bugs are tagged 7.0 - there used to be a public roadmap for future releases but it seems that this isn't been done anymore.

Sorry if I might seem overreacting on tiny issues, but those were really important to us. I hope it's just a lac of maintenance than a shift in strategy.

Thanks for your quick reply however

[uxbod]

I doubt they have even come up with a name for V7 yet; seeing as V6 has only recently been released. Zimbra have always been very open about releases so I would not read anything into it.

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Yann2

Hello Phoenix, I am indeed speaking of pm.zimbra.com, sorry if I wasnt clear.

Zimbra Product Portal doesn't show any date for 6.0.5 (which I guess will be out next week at some point).

Nothing has changed in regards to this, you won't see a date because the bug fixes are still being worked on and a date is given when it's ready to release.

Originally Posted by Yann2

Trying to access Zimbra Product Portal requires registration, although many bugs are tagged 7.0 - there used to be a public roadmap for future releases but it seems that this isn't been done anymore.

The roadmap is available for the current version only.

Originally Posted by Yann2

Sorry if I might seem overreacting on tiny issues, but those were really important to us. I hope it's just a lac of maintenance than a shift in strategy.

There is no shift in strategy, please read the the recent announcements about Zimbra & VMware for further details.

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by uxbod

I doubt they have even come up with a name for V7 yet;

There are names for the next three releases.

[Yann2]

Hello Phoenix, I get this when logging in with my bugzilla account:
You are not authorized to access this content. Home

Then I can only compare with what I am used to, ie the last 2-3 years - there used to be long term roadmaps "6.0 coming out in 18 months, no name for it yet" and approximate dates for minor releases. Sure they were all always very approximative, but they showed what the idea was, what features were planned to be implemented, and gave a rough idea of when it would come out.

I am glad you are saying that there has been no shift in policy, so I guess pm.zimbra.com was just a bit neglected rather than intentionally abandoned

Same story for the demo account.

Thanks for your replies, I guess I'll just wait&see - thought it was worth writing how important these small details are to us

EDIT: Wanted to edit the title of my first post to something maybe less alarming, seems I can't, sorry for that

[ewilen]

Originally Posted by phoenix

There are names for the next three releases.

I've seen references to "Helix", and H comes after G[unsNRoses], so I think that's one of them...