Zimbra dead?

[yllyxzmz]

So what's the deal, is Zimbra dead? Forums are dead, there's no guidance on roadmaps for years (basically at least since Synacor took over), existing features that were once free are now being put behind a paywall, new UI gets squashed, development of new features is nonexistent, blog just keeps telling me things I already know (the latest one about opening emails in a separate window is hilarious), etc.

I've been using Zimbra since the first beta in 2005. It's been 14 years, and I've been through all the transitions (Yahoo, Synacor, Zimbra, Vmware, etc.). I'm about as loyal as it gets. At some point, however, barring some information about future direction, I'm going to have to figure out some other options, I just don't know what else to do. It's too important to my business to keep operating in the dark. I'm not currently aware of what would be a good alternative -- Zimbra for so long was not just a great web client, but had so many other things baked in as well. And obviously I'm intimately familiar with day to day operations, spam tweaks, issues, backup processes, etc., so getting that deeply knowledgeable about another platform isn't something I'd really like to start over with. I'd much rather continue with Zimbra. As it is, short of completely replacing all our Zimbra servers, I'm slowly removing responsibilities from our Zimbra servers, due to the feature stagnation. I'm moving things like Calendar/Tasks/Docs/Briefcase to Nextcloud, but it's much less convenient than an all in one solution, and the supposed "integration" between Zimbra and Nextcloud is more or less useless.

Is there any hope? Or has Synacor killed off the future of, at the very least, the OSS version of Zimbra?

[phoenix]

Is there any hope? Or has Synacor killed off the future of, at the very least, the OSS version of Zimbra?

Who can say? Unless you're an NE customer then Synacor doesn't even acknowledge that they have any forums. I've tried to make as much noise as I can but I get no response from anyone. I've also been here since 2005 and I think Synacor, mistakenly, sees no value in these forums nor what an asset it was or could be if they ever bothered to look - that's their biggest mistake from my point of view.

[yllyxzmz]

Is there any hope? Or has Synacor killed off the future of, at the very least, the OSS version of Zimbra?

Who can say? Unless you're an NE customer then Synacor doesn't even acknowledge that they have any forums. I've tried to make as much noise as I can but I get no response from anyone. I've also been here since 2005 and I think Synacor, mistakenly, sees no value in these forums nor what an asset it was or could be if they ever bothered to look - that's their biggest mistake from my point of view.

Agreed, though I'd find a way to deal with it if the problem was only the forums that were lost in the sands of time. But gone also are the roadmaps, anything useful in the blog, or any helpful statements from Synacor on any other platform whatsoever. Oh, and gone also are the feature enhancements, and gone too are features that were announced and made available as beta, or even features that once used to work. I know version numbers aren't everything, but it speaks volumes that we've been on 8.x since 2012.

It saddens me to see you feeling this way as well. I've been fighting coming to this conclusion for years, but I suppose Occam's razor applies -- the simplest explanation is probably that Synacor doesn't care one bit about the forums, but I think it extends beyond that and they also don't care one bit about the OSS version. Which means it's time to move on as soon as I find a reasonable replacement, and it's time to quit recommending Zimbra for any new installs.

EDIT: I should add that people thinking about going with the NE version should beware as well -- I didn't have a good experience the last time I tried bothering with NE support a couple years ago, and there are recent threads in the forum complaining about worthless NE support as well. So it's more than just the forums and the OSS versions that's dead.

[axslingr]

I'm a NE customer and I've also got an OSS instance with paid support. I don't have many issues but I've never had a bad experience with support. Regarding the forums, I'm more than happy to use my support status to help others here if it's something I can reproduce on my servers.

With that being said, if I were to go looking for alternatives, I'd probably try out Zentyal or Open-Xchange for starters.

Lance

[DualBoot]

I'm a NE customer and I've also got an OSS instance with paid support. I don't have many issues but I've never had a bad experience with support.

You're a lucky guy ;p

[axslingr]

You're a lucky guy ;p

I don't disagree!

Lance

[cyber7]

I have had the experience of dealing with paid Zimbra Support and after pointing out to them the errors in the so-called "sql recovery wiki " they just fixed the documentation it and told me to run the "fixed" steps. This after the database got deleted from the temp area.

The advise was from "Gopal Bhandari" who then had the audacity telling me he can not give me "unauthorized" documentations when I finally showed him the fix was available on the actual zimbra release.

I have had a telephone conference scheduled by Navdeep Mathur, Gopal's manager from Zimbra support, who, from the outset of the conversation, told me he not only watches the Zimbra Forums, but also read my post about the poor support I received.

Navdeep also kept telling me he was going to take the matter of support, and Zimbra Support Staff playing an active role on this forum, to his Zimbra/Synacor Directors. He also kept saying he will personally, in his capacity of Zimbra Suppot, become more active in this community.

The entire recording of the conversation can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/43505anesuo0d ... 3.WAV?dl=0
To Bill, I used you as an example of one of the engineers actively contributing on this forum.
To all other engineers, I mentioned your contribution as to show that the postings on this forum is not mainly from users, but from people in the know, with vast knowledge and a vested interest in the product.

[brewmann]

I have had a telephone conference scheduled by Navdeep Mathur, Gopal's manager from Zimbra support, who, from the outset of the conversation, told me he not only watches the Zimbra Forums, but also read my post about the poor support I received.

I'm currently engaged in a dragged out 2 week NE support issue with this Gopal dude....unbelievably horrible. If ANYBODY out there is listening.....it is getting harder and harder to keep my management convinced that Zimbra NE should not be replaced with the alternative.

[cyber7]

What is the alternative, if I may ask?

[phoenix]

What is the alternative, if I may ask?

Zimbra could actually engage with their Community, that would encourage others to post here and help. I'll say this again, this lack of interaction from anyone at Zimbra is a missed opportunity and won't encourage anyone to stay with the product in the long term.