[plug] Zimbra

[Tim Bowden]

On Wed, 2011-05-04 at 16:29 +0800, Brad Campbell wrote:
> G'day all,
> 
> I've been through just about every phone that purported to sync with 
> Linux over the years searching for the holy grail (Reliable Calendar and 
> Contacts sync).
> 
> When doing my last round of searching I stumbled across Zimbra, which I 
> had heard of before but never really looked at. I'm running a small 
> company server and I wanted the other guys (windows dudes) to be able to 
> use Outlook while I was free to use something sane. On the plus side it 
> has ActiveSync compatibility and a connector to BlackBerry Enterprise 
> Server Express.
> 
> Long story short I installed it up in a fresh Ubuntu VM and had a play 
> with it and was impressed enough to request a trial license. I ran up an 
> XP VM and installed BESX on it. Then I went and bought a blackberry.
> 
> Awesome.. just awesome. Finally I get instant* (where instant is 
> anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds) real time sync between my calendar, 
> contacts and e-mail.
> 
> Now Zimbra is $399USD for a Starter edition (which buys you all the 
> features but only 15 licenses) for a year subscription, but only in the 
> US. Of course because we live in Australia we have to pay a 40% premium 
> to buy it from a local distributor. Long story short I found a bug in 
> one of the european on-line e-tailers that would allow me to buy it on 
> line and in USD, so I saved a bit on the exchange rate also.
> 
> Last night I poked a port-forward from my public IP for SSL and hooked 
> my other half's iPhone up using Activesync. Sweet.. It just works.
> 
> It's taken since 1996, but I finally have a mostly Linux based solution 
> that does precisely what I need it to do.
> 
> Yay!
> 
> On a weird note, I walked out the door yesterday to find 2 boxes sitting 
> on my door mat. An ADSL router and a Wireless router, both brand new 
> (one box still had the shrinkwrap on it). No card, no message, nobody 
> owning up to putting them there. Looks like I've acquired a hardware fairy!
> 
> Brad


The open source version of Zimbra is very near the top of my play list.
Not sure if that one does the sync thing though.  Looks like a sweet
product so far.  Not got very far yet though.  Needs more ram than I
have spare on the server I'm running.

Tim Bowden