[Users] May 12, 2020 Zeta Alliance Conference Call Summary

[Randy Leiker]

Hello Zeta Alliance Community, 

Here is a summary of this week’s conference call. A few brief reminders: 


    * Conference calls are every Tuesday and open to all using either the FreeConferenceCall.com VoIP app or via a dial-in number: [ https://www.freeconferencecall.com/wall/zetalliance | https://www.freeconferencecall.com/wall/zetalliance ] 
    * Each week’s call agenda can be found at: [ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uUUDJpwp2CAylU6lxtbEdVcUX_qSbciyes6gLTWw2fY/edit | https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uUUDJpwp2CAylU6lxtbEdVcUX_qSbciyes6gLTWw2fY/edit ] 
    * A copy of each week’s summary is also posted to the Zimbra Forums: 
        * March 2020 : [ http://forums.zimbra.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=67855 | http://forums.zimbra.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=67855 ] 
        * April 2020 : [ https://forums.zimbra.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68073 | https://forums.zimbra.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68073 ] 
        * May 2020 : [ https://forums.zimbra.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68214 ] [ https://forums.zimbra.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68214 | https://forums.zimbra.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68214 ] 
    * Constructive feedback on these call summaries is always welcome. 

May 12, 2020 Conference Call Summary 

Zimbra Open Source Policy Clarifications 
Steve D., a Synacor employee who is responsible for Zimbra product management, discussed Synacor’s recently revised open source policy. He explained the differences between the Zimbra 8.8.15 and 9 open source policies: 


    * The Modern UI in Zimbra 9 is commercially licensed, and not available for open source use. 
    * No open source binaries will be provided by Synacor for Zimbra 9. 
    * You can build your own Zimbra 9 binaries from the Zimbra 9 open source repos, but this will not include the Modern UI, only the Classic UI (as found in 8.8.15). 
    * For Zimbra Network Edition (commercial) use, Synacor will grant access to the Modern UI source code, which may be needed for example, for a security audit or source code contribution. 
    * The Zimbra open source contributions agreement for Zimbra 9 remains the same as it is for 8.8.15. 

He also said open source access to Zimbra continues after 8.8.15 in to version 9, so 8.8.15 is not the end of the line, but with the aforementioned changes. A Q&A document is being prepared by Synacor related to these changes that will provided to all Zimbra partners. 

Zimbra 9 UI Questions and Comments 
Geert H. asked, for Zimbra 9 users who self-compile or obtain a community provided binary of Zimbra 9, what will the experience be like for users of the Mobile version of the Zimbra Web Client. Steve answered that the Mobile version of the Zimbra Web Client has been removed from both the commercial and open source editions of Zimbra 9. Since only the Classic UI will be available in Zimbra 9 open source edition, mobile users would have to use the Classic UI, if possible. 

Wendell J. commented that if the Modern UI is the only UI receiving new features in Zimbra 9, then it would appear to represent a dead-end for open source Zimbra. Steve D. said that 8.8.15 is still supported for at least the next 3 years (until December 31, 2023) and that policies can always change during that time, based on partner and community needs. 

Zimbra 9 Upgrade Questions 
Geert H. asked if Synacor will require upgrading from 8.8.15 to 9 to continue to receive support. Steve D. said the plan is to continue providing patches and support for both versions, and added that the determination of whether or not to upgrade is dependent on if a customer needs new features introduced in version 9. 

Gary C asked if it was possible to introduce a Zimbra 9 mailbox server in to an existing Zimbra 8.8.15 cluster as a method of trying it out. Steve D. said that since Zimbra Network Edition 9 offers both the Classic and Modern UI, that the recommendation is to upgrade an existing 8.8.15 cluster to 9 to avoid compatibility issues. This would allow for running either UI version on a Zimbra 9 cluster. John E. added that the Zimbra 9 back end is an evolution of Zimbra 8 and is not significantly different. Gary C. also asked if anyone on the call knew of blocking issues known to prevent upgrades to version 9. John H. said he was only aware of some earlier issues reported around the Zimbra Docs server, but they have been fixed by the development team at Zextras. 

Zimbra 9 Language Support 
Geert H. asked if there are plans to add more translations to Zimbra 9, specifically the Dutch language. Steve D. and Barry D. both said that upcoming patches will introduce support for Dutch and a number of additional languages, which will be released in batches. The first two batches are anticipated to add support for the languages: Russian, Polish, Vietnamese, Romanian, Turkish, and others too. Steve said that if a customer needs a specific translation to meet a business need, to let Synacor know so they can prioritize the translation efforts appropriately since they are doing the translations in-house. 

Upgrading Third-Party Components in Zimbra 
Geert H. asked about the status of upgrading Nginx and OpenSSL components which are very outdated in Zimbra 8.8.15 and 9 as discussed here: [ https://github.com/Zimbra/packages/pull/112 | https://github.com/Zimbra/packages/pull/112 ] . Steve said that an Nginx upgrade is in process for both Zimbra 9 and Zimbra Cloud (Zimbra X). He said he needs to check if Nginx will be upgraded in 8.8.15 and report back. He has not seen any plans to upgrade OpenSSL at this time, other than some internal discussions in Synacor about adding support for TLS 1.3 to Zimbra. 

Steve said that, going forward, a benefit of Zimbra 9 is that third-party components are anticipated to be upgraded sooner as new versions become available from those third-party sources. 

Zimbra Road Map Plans 
Steve D. said that the Briefcase feature is anticipated to be added to the Modern UI in Zimbra 9. However, the architecture changes (Kubernetes and Docker Containers) introduced in Zimbra X, and currently available in Zimbra Cloud, will not be back-ported to Zimbra 9 or 8.8.15. 


Randy Leiker ( randy at skywaynetworks.com ) 
Skyway Networks, LLC 
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