update on Zimbra 5.0_GA

[lthown]

I looked around but the only info I could find on the progress towards 5.0 is on Zimbra Product Portal which puts the release as yesterday. As far as I can find, that didn't happen - I was just wondering how it was coming along.

edit:
It should be noted that the page now has 12/31/07 as the targeted date.

[dijichi2]

they're usually a month or so off scheduled dates in pm.zimbra.com, but they have been saying in the forums even in the last week or so they were still expecting to go GA this week. hopefully it won't be too long!

it can be a bit frustrating to have releases delayed with no etas, but its great they take the time to release as bug-free product as possible.

[dspillett]

The page you linked to suggests that suggests that all the beta and RC releases were about a fortnight (or more) later than their earlier ETAs, so if that represents a fairly linear project delay don't expect 5.0 to "go gold" for a week or two yet.

If you look at the bottom of that page, it shows there to be one issue described as a "blocker". If that class of issue are the only ones that are release critical then a release may be imminent (after that issue is fixed and a full round of regression+install+upgrade testing is done and no other blockers are found).
That is assuming the issues display is up-to-date of course, but I would hazard a guess that it is either dynamicaly calculated (or at least refreshed from the developer's issue tracking system every few hours).

Of course, other issue classes (like "critical, prio 1") might also be release blockers. If there is a dev reading: can you confirm if this is/isn't the case?

[PhishKiller]

We have been testing RC2 in semi-production for about a week and are anxious to see the GA so we can go into production with Zimbra as our mail platform.

I hope GA arrives soon. The only blocker we have is POP3/IMAP connctions from Thunderbird (known issue AFIAK). Unfortunatly, myself and most of our analyst teams use TB for our current mail solution.

If I was so inclined to live with MacMail or some other solution (LookOUT is never an option for me) I'd be inclined to gamble with a release of the server to our work groups.

Here's to a Gold GA this week!

[jeffw]

Originally Posted by PhishKiller

I hope GA arrives soon. The only blocker we have is POP3/IMAP connctions from Thunderbird (known issue AFIAK). Unfortunatly, myself and most of our analyst teams use TB for our current mail solution.

What's the issue with Thunderbird?

[PhishKiller]

POP3 and IMAP won't communicate with RC2. They do not send something the java modules in Zimbra expect and it tosses a null pointer exception, which is pretty fatal to the login/authendication process.

On the Thunderbird side the connection goes dead but does not toss any error for the longest time. If you watch the zimbra logs you'll see these sorts of errors:

2007-12-18 14:40:13,847 INFO  [Pop3SSLServer-744] [ip=209.147.114.202;] pop - connected
2007-12-18 14:40:13,910 INFO  [Pop3SSLServer-744] [] ProtocolHandler - Exception occurred while handling connection
java.lang.NullPointerException
	at com.zimbra.cs.pop3.Pop3Handler.doAUTH(Pop3Handler.java:508)
	at com.zimbra.cs.pop3.Pop3Handler.processCommandInternal(Pop3Handler.java:235)
	at com.zimbra.cs.pop3.Pop3Handler.processCommand(Pop3Handler.java:155)
	at com.zimbra.cs.pop3.TcpPop3Handler.processCommand(TcpPop3Handler.java:46)
	at com.zimbra.cs.tcpserver.ProtocolHandler.processConnection(ProtocolHandler.java:212)
	at com.zimbra.cs.tcpserver.ProtocolHandler.run(ProtocolHandler.java:179)
	at EDU.oswego.cs.dl.util.concurrent.PooledExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
2007-12-18 14:40:13,910 INFO  [Pop3SSLServer-744] [] ProtocolHandler - Handler exiting normally

I don't recall the thread but I did see one of the Zimbra employees file a bug for this, and I think (think mind you) they fixed it pretty quickly, but I'm assuming that fix is in the GA version.

[fcash]

This must be a Thunderbird-only issue, as we are not having any issues with IMAP access to Zimbra 5.0rc2 using Kontact/KMail and Outlook 2003 (no connector, just IMAP).

[jwilliams]

I find this completely unprofessional. Yes, I want them to take their time and make sure they release a stable product. But to just miss a posted release date without an explanation or revised ETA is bush league.

[jholder]

Originally Posted by jwilliams

I find this completely unprofessional. Yes, I want them to take their time and make sure they release a stable product. But to just miss a posted release date without an explanation or revised ETA is bush league.

Take note: This is the only time I will ever respond to a flame...

Wow-
Well, then, I guess there's not much we can do. We get flamed a lot of things we do and things we don't do.

Software gets delayed. Just look at any other vendor to realize that. Most don't offer any type of "pmweb" or forums.

The fact is, we offer a very open community. We communicate a lot.

Nothing in pmweb is in stone, and it never has been. It's a goal. Sometimes we miss the goal.

As for explanations on why, just become a developer. If you are (which I think you will say you are), then look at the bugzilla.

You want a broken product: there are others out there.

Please don't call us unprofessional. We work very hard to communicate, and if we miss a date, that's all a part of software development.

I rarely respond to flames, but if you knew what I knew about how hard our team works. . .well, you would be ashamed of yourself.

[natrixgli]

Oh my.

Zimbra team, if you're listening - I'm very anxious to get my hands on 5.0 GA but not at the cost of compromised quality.

I have used Zimbra for nearly 2 years now, and in my experience Zimbra updates get released when they're ready. A little patience goes a long way. It's only the day after the proposed GA release date, which was set months ago.

Unprofessional would be releasing a product that's not ready to go. I think some people take for granted that the Zimbra folks, unlike many other software providers that do NOT kindly allow you to use their product free of charge, grant public access to their PM as a courtesy to users, not as a contract with them.

Don't worry, Zimbra Team - we still love you. (though we are refreshing the "Announcements" forum page about 80 times per day in eager anticipation!)

-n8