Instant Messaging is being removed in next major release?

[mstreet]

Hi,

I noticed in the latest Release Notes that IM capabilities will be removed in the next major release.

"Zimbra Instant Messaging (IM) capabilities are going to be removed in the next major release of ZCS. These capabilities include the embedded IM server and the Zimbra IM Client (part of the Zimbra Web Client). Zimbra IM is marked BETA and should not be enabled in a production environment and is not a supported feature."

Not cool! We went from jabber to Zimbra and now we need go back to a non integrated solution. We really utilize the integrated chat feature between physical locations. Is that why it was always labeled "Beta" for all of these years?

[ewilen]

Please see the discussion in Future of IM (instant messaging) client in Zimbra and links from there.

Basically, yes, Zimbra's position is that "Beta" means it was never intended for production, and this seems to mean that removing it wasn't regarded as a regression. However, if you read everything that's been posted here and in bugzilla, I believe you'll find that Zimbra intends to continue to develop a new integrated IM client, and to provide hooks for third-party IM servers.

I accept that there may be good reasons for proceeding in this direction, but I think many would like Zimbra to provide a bundled IM server as an installation option. This is covered by Bug 47036 - RFE: include separate IM server, so you might want to vote for it.