[plug] Shared Contacts between computers

[Brad Campbell]

On 01/05/12 09:53, Alexander Hartner wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I was wondering if anyone can make suggestions on what they use to share contact (and possibly calendar events) between their computers. Ideally I am looking for something that I can run at home without the need for pushing all my data into the cloud.
>

Have a look at Zimbra, or Zarafa.

Zarafa comes with Z-Push (they developed it) and Zimbra OSS has a Z-Push 
back end (activesync for mobile devices that support it).

We use Zimbra Network Edition here to seamlessly sync our desktops, 
iDevices and Blackberries. It's not cheap, but it has markedly reduced 
my admin headaches.

I would have moved to Zarafa this year (license renewal every May) if 
they had a decent desktop client, but their CardDAV support is still 
pretty experimental. They seem to be focusing on more "outlook on 
Windows" as the desired front end.

I can't get over just how well it all works. No clunky client software 
required, and configuration on the devices limited to feeding it the 
right account details. I run it from our home ADSL line (admittedly with 
a static IP) and it just works.

I'm probably in the minority, but I actually like the Zimbra desktop 
client, although I also use Thunderbird with the lightning plugin and it 
works almost as well. My old man uses Outlook with the MAPI connector, 
and Mum uses the native apple apps on her Mac.

The only thing Zimbra does not support is Outlook on the Mac, but thats 
a non issue for us anyway.

My gut feeling is if you don't have blackberries to support, and don't 
want the seamless Outlook stuff, then the OSS version of Zimbra would be 
a pretty good bet. Especially if you want to sync Android or iDevices to 
it with the Z-Push back end.