Zimbra is a bleeding-edge Web 2.0 project. It is similar to Google Apps, but built with the business and enterprise user in mind. It is also a competitor to Microsoft Exchange, but goes well beyond Exchange’s capabilities.

While there is an open source edition of Zimbra, it was not released under the GNU GPL, but instead the Yahoo Public License, which is more limited. Further, Microsoft does not have a very good track record on open source software, and there is no guarantee that Zimbra will stay open, even in its current, limited form, if Microsoft purchases Yahoo.

I was hoping to use Zimbra myself when I finally get around to setting up a server, so I am hoping the project survives somehow.

[via Groklaw]

One of the problems with using Outlook to manage e-mail is that there is no easy way to manage attachments. Outlook is not a good place to store attachments. Outlook basically rolls all your information–e-mails, attachments, tasks, appointments, and contacts, into one .pst file. So the more attachments, the more data Outlook has to manage, and the slower it runs. I’ve heard that if your .pst file gets above 1 GB, Outlook borders on unusable. I’m not there yet.

You can remove attachments (after saving them to your client file, of course) one at a time, but this is tedious and inefficient.

There are a slew of add-on programs to help with this. Can anyone recommend a few to try to start? If not, I am going to start plowing through them, one by one.

I have been peeking at Zimbra lately, a hot networked personal information manager. But instead of being run from your computer, it is run remotely (think Gmail+Google Calendar+Skype, and then some). There are serious advantages to this, starting with platform independence and reduced load on your local system resources. It also has advantages for collaboration, since all users are essentially working from one calendar and task list. And using the internet allows Zimbra to incorporate things like VOIP calling and shared documents.

As an enterprise solution, or even for a large law firm, Zimbra seems like a pretty great solution. But what about the solo or small-firm practitioner? Some of the above advantages are still there. Platform independence is a big one, for example. Zimbra also would allow a solo practitioner to more easily employ temporary or remote employees by making communication easy. Why run five programs to stay in touch when Firefox will do it all?

It also helps further the mobility dream. With Zimbra, you can even keep all your files on the server. Just log in from wherever you are (Portable Firefox should ensure sufficient security) and go to work.