MS offering to buy Yahoo ???

[jholder]

Before everyone starts jumping off bridges and saying the sky is falling:

As we get the news, you'll get the news.

[mbd]

Originally Posted by putt1ck

Well, as a paying customer who chose Zimbra to get a freedom of choice in other areas of our IS strategy, it's my job to fear the worst. We already have enough facts for a panic.

It's your job to fear the worst or it's your job to be aware of risks that would affect your organisation and assess them appropriately?

- You don't know that Microsoft will buy Yahoo yet.
- You don't know what will happen if they do.
- You don't know when whatever might happen will occur.

Too put it lightly, I am not a fan of Microsoft, particularly most of their past business practices. So, I am certainly wary of this situation. And I'll want answers too. But there doesn't seem to be a great deal of point lighting the torches and collecting the pitchforks just yet.

If it helps at all, after Microsoft bought Connectix (makers of Virtual PC, software that let PPC Mac users run Windows), it was widely predicted that it would be the end of the product. In the long term, that's not entirely incorrect, and admittedly Microsoft did a poor job of maintaining the software in a way that Connectix did before the takeover, *but* the software remained, was supported and a viable option for quite a number of years.

If Microsoft are going to kill Zimbra, then I'm confident that I'll have time to migrate to something else before Zimbra is no longer a viable day to day solution.

[p24t]

Originally Posted by jholder

Many of us on PST just woke up

Gotta feel bad for the Zimbra folks too. This really has to suck to wake up to. Not only are we, the customers, unsure of WTF is going to happen, fears about MS abound, but what about the people who make and support Zimbra? Sure, some of us may be in hot water at work, but if things go badly then the employees may fear for their jobs too.

I don't see anyone happy about this, but I don't see anyone here who can make a difference either.

[fselendic]

Wel, one second after seeing the announcement, and half a second after "WTF?!", the only possible solution popped into my mind: spin off and fork.

Even if MS-Yahoo merger is not imminent, it is clear now that it will happen sooner or later. And what is even more clear is that Zimbra has license that doesn't protect us or Zimbra from that kind of things.

So, again, what was the last release of Zimbra with half normal licensing?

[Rich Graves]

Originally Posted by vince

So to say for us NOT to panic right now is not justifiable, we have the right to start getting suspect about this NOW since some of this knowledge of a possible acquisition was know about for months now by others but not us customers.

No. Ballmer's letter to Yahoo's board of directors was unexpected and hostile. It was delivered after the markets closed yesterday, and released publicly before markets opened this morning, giving Yahoo management no opportunity to respond. This makes Oracle's pursuit of PeopleSoft and BEA look friendly. The letter makes reference to merger discussions from late 2006 to February 2007, but nothing between February 2007 and today. I see nothing in the financial or technical press to suggest that anyone outside Microsoft knew this was coming.

Zimbra management does perhaps have two interesting bits of inside information: whether the Yahoo/Zimbra buyout had any terms relevant to a Microsoft/Yahoo buyout, and the current status of Comcast SmartZone and other major deployments.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to ZCS 5.0.2.

Support staff has no information. Let's keep it focused here, and get 5.0.2 out the door.

[dijichi2]

Wel, one second after seeing the announcement, and half a second after "WTF?!", the only possible solution popped into my mind: spin off and fork.

Even if MS-Yahoo merger is not imminent, it is clear now that it will happen sooner or later. And what is even more clear is that Zimbra has license that doesn't protect us or Zimbra from that kind of things.

So, again, what was the last release of Zimbra with half normal licensing?

You keep banging on about this half licensing stuff. I'm not aware that any part of Zimbra was ever licensed under MPL, do you any evidence to back this up?

I believe the licensing changed in version 4.5.8 to YPL from ZPL, but I'm not aware that ZPL was any more lenient. It might be interesting to investigate iceweasel. Somehow Debian managed to diverge firefox from MPL, perhaps a similar thing is possible here.

[jfo]

Zimbra is barely open source to begin with. To GPL the version that is actually usable would be to destroy Zimbra's business model. More likely Microsoft will simply shut it down, and that's fine. If you want a truly open source system you should select one that is already GPL'ed.

[jfo]

Considering the fact that Zimbra is only useful if you buy the closed source version, this is not really a big surprise. Microsoft will simply shut Zimbra down. You should be using a system that is fully GPL to begin with. There are several good ones available.

[raj]

Someone said on this thread that MS may not be even thinking about zimbra in Yahoo deal..well read the news

Microsoft inherits the peanut butter - Feb. 1, 2008

Even the”Press” list zimbra as an assent in yahoo's few hundred company lists..so MS definitely already know what they going to do with Zimbra.

For the OSS users i don’t think so Zimbra will die anytime soon..but i feel for NE users who want to get away from Exchange and wanted Open Source Supported solution they have some convincing to do to their bosses.

One interesting thing to note is NO YAHOO logo and name appears on 5.01 login screens anymore its just say "Zimbra"

Raj

[dijichi2]

Considering the fact that Zimbra is only useful if you buy the closed source version, this is not really a big surprise. Microsoft will simply shut Zimbra down. You should be using a system that is fully GPL to begin with. There are several good ones available.

Utter nonsense, on several levels.