ZD replacement? Fork maybe?

[zim_mike]

We have been running a zimbra server (8.8.11) for years and using the current desktop (7.3.1).
I read that the zimbra desktop has come to end of life but trying to find information on if there is a replacement or not is frustrating.
After reading countless posts and searching the net, it is not clear to me if there is or is not a replacement and or if there ever will be.

I find things called 'connect' and other things that sound like clients but none of it is clear since this is not my full time job.

-Can someone please confirm if there is a newer replacement or never will be?
-Are there any forks of the ZD client out there?
-Is 7.3.1 still safe to use and if not, what is the reason that it may not be safe?
-If it is not safe, are there any ways to at least improve its security?

Sorry but all this reading is simply confusing me. As I said, doing this is not my full time work and appreciate any help you can provide.

[DualBoot]

Hello,

- No, only web UI for those who have enought money to pay for
- No fork as far as I know
- Not safe : potential security breach
- No, unless you are programmer (mainly in Java)

Regards,

[zim_mike]

>- No, only web UI for those who have enought money to pay for

What does this mean? The web UI is the default non client one on Zimbra to begin with. Pay for what?

>- Not safe : potential security breach

Can you expand on this? What are these security issues? We have a handful of people that use the clients from their mobiles and desktops.

[DualBoot]

For the first item I explain badly. Most of the time Zdesktop is used by nomad users, so Moder UI is set to be used on any device and answer this situation.
The second item is about code it self. No code is perfect, time after time there is new security breach discovered in it and if it happen no one will fix for Zimbra Desktop.

Regards,

[jeastman]

ZD is quite the beast of an application. The client actually contains a version of the server it runs locally (a very old server). It is a very complicated and difficult to maintain. Despite the amount of interest from users, it is very hard to justify the cost of upkeep and further development. We have been looking into alternatives, but there is no direct replacement at this time.

The code for ZD is available in the Zimbra Github organization (https://github.com/Zimbra/zd-full), should someone want to take it on.

[zim_mike]

I bet most people don't even use all of the features. We never have. We simply use it as a nice email client, stable, reliable, multi account.
Why not consider stripping all that stuff out and continuing to have a nice client? Seems a shame to have to use something else when we love zimbra, both client and server.