Zimbra: Bad Choices
I know, it's been mighty quiet here at TBDC, I apologize. I just haven't had much to say lately, except what's been coming out on DCMB and Twitter, and such is the way. However, today, after I mention how much Iron Man kicked ass, I've got something to say.
We recommend and resell Zimbra to clients in need of a good groupware solution. It's a really great product, both in terms of its user experience (really killer AJAX email client!) and have had, for the most part, a good experience.
We're really glad that Microsoft has dropped their bid to purchase Yahoo forcefully (at least for now) as that will allow Zimbra to continue to improve their product. It likely would have been first against the wall when Ballmer and his gang took over.
However, there's a major problem with ZCS 5 and the Mac. Two of them, actually. And together, they create a serious availability issue for Zimbra with regard to the Mac platform at large. Most of our clients desperately want ZCS 5 for its cool share-able address books, and improved iSync Conduits. Two things hold most people back:
ZCS 5 won't run on PowerPC Hardware
Sure, there's a beta version of the open-source edition for 5.0.5 coming out...any day now. But if you want the things that make ZCS Network Edition, you can't have it for Power PC. This effectively rules out any hardware made before August 2006, and in the case of the Xserve, November 2006. So, our client has a server that's turning 2 this year, but can't run ZCS 5. It's overpowered for the task, frequently running at 20% or less utilization of its twin 2.0 GHz G5 Processors. But yet, no version of Zimbra 5 will run on it.
ZCS 5 won't run on Leopard
But Tom, you say, go get a new machine! The Intel kit is better anyhow! I agree! The new Mac Pros are pretty darned impressive. They not terribly expensive, but there's a major problem. Zimbra only runs in the 10.4 space right now. They don't even have a beta product available for Leopard at this time. It's only been out six months at this point, and it's not like there was an extensive build-up of press for developers...
...wait, there was a whole conference on 10.5? Last year? Before it came out? Huh.
But how is this a problem?
Here's the problem. If you want to buy a Mac, of any flavor, to run Zimbra right now, you can't. Since January of this year, none of the for-purchase Macs will boot in 10.4. And, since there's no PowerPC version of ZCS, you can't run it on old hardware either. Your only hope is to find a Mac Pro or Xserve made between August/November 2006 and January 2008. Only machines in that 15-month span will run ZCS 5.
And that's a load of crap for all of us paying customers who have paid for the license, but can't install the latest version.
Pretty lame, eh?
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