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

[Ron Guerin]

Peter C. Norton wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 04, 2008 at 01:35:58PM -0500, Ruben Safir wrote:
>> On Mon, Feb 04, 2008 at 01:23:55PM -0500, Ron Guerin wrote:
>>> Ron Guerin wrote:
>>>> Kevin Mark wrote:
>>>>> On Sun, Feb 03, 2008 at 11:44:38PM -0500, George Bourozikas wrote:
>>>>>> Also, has the Yahoo! Public License (which is used for Zimbra Open Source) 
>>>>>> been scrutinized in any way?
>>>>>>
>>>>> If this YPL is indeed 'open-source-like', then at leaast folks should be
>>>>> able to fork it and work around any issues. If not, well, then it
>>>>> wouldn't matter anyway.
>>>> When it comes to stuff like this, the license is almost beside the 
>>>> point.  If not developed by a company paying developers, it won't be 
>>>> developed at all.  One thing you've never seen, and aren't likely to 
>>>> ever see, are community developers hard at work on groupware that's 
>>>> actually useful to anyone.  
>>
>> This statement is very factual not only about groupware, but also accounting
>> packages, inventory control systems, healthcare software, retail sales software
>> and a whole slew of other software which involves things that aren't fun or
>> interesting from the POV of a developer.
> 
> From the user side, there is a great unwillingness to look at the
> risks of putting too many eggs in one basket (eg. why does all
> "enterprise" software have to seem to fit everything under the hood?
> It seems that people are easily fooled into thinking that a single
> name == a single product, eg. The ERP, the CRM, etc).
> 
> I was reminded of the foolishness of this approach reading RISKS
> yesterday:
> 
> http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/25.04.html#subj6
> 
> "Manufacturer Blames Bankruptcy on Failed ERP Implementation".
> 
> My guess is that it didn't have a calendar *and* a todo list, so
> everything went to sh*t.

I know the CRM system was partly blamed for the demise of AT&T Wireless, 
although that probably had more to do with the way they treated their 
employees than anything else.

I presently have my Treo syncing my calendar and tasks with Lightning, 
and this makes me a happy camper.  But that's enough for me.  I don't 
need a social network in there too, which, I heard, is something 
Microsoft is doing.  (adding social networking to the apps in Office)

- Ron