[nylug-talk] The future of Zimbra after Microsoft's bid for Yahoo!

[Ron Guerin]

George Bourozikas wrote:

> Would anyone care to offer any insights on what the future might hold for 
> Zimbra if Yahoo! ends up in the MS fold?  For a while it looked like Zimbra 
> could be a valid replacement for Exchange - would anyone bet the shop on this 
> anymore?

Zimbra, Flickr, and everything else at Yahoo have no future if the 
Microsoft purchase goes through.  Open stuff like Zimbra will be buried 
and replaced with Microsoft products (Exchange) and things like Flickr 
will be "Microsoftized" into the kinds of hideous things like Microsoft 
  makes themselves.

It will be amusing to watch as Microsoft spends an insane amount of 
money trying to replace Yahoo's infrastructure with MS Crap for Windows. 
  That is, if you find watching train wrecks amusing.

> I know that the takeover is not a done deal - there are regulatory issues and 
> Yahoo! is reportedly looking for a White Knight - and it could take months 
> before it's over but I can just see MS pulling the plug on Zimbra in order to 
> protect its Exchange business.
> 
> Also, has the Yahoo! Public License (which is used for Zimbra Open Source) 
> been scrutinized in any way?

Yahoo have not owned Zimbra long enough to leave a mark on it I would 
think, so another valid question would be to ask about the license it 
used to be under.

- Ron