Should You Use Zimbra as Your E-mail Client?

We probably all use e-mail on a regular basis, and most of us will have more than one e-mail account. Dealing with all these accounts is a challenge in itself. More and more e-mail providers offer support for 3rd party accounts, but it never feels the same.

The most common solution is to use a local e-mail client, of which Outlook Express is still THE client used by most people on Windows PCs. Live mail is its successor, and is the default on Windows Vista, but they work in pretty much the same way.

If you need more functionaly, the choice can be Microsoft Outlook, as part of the Office suite, but that will set you back a few dollars. One of the free available solutions is Google Apps, which offers more functionality, particular dealing with and sharing documents online.

But there is another solution for your e-mail client, supporting AOL mail, Gmail, and most common web email providers. Check out Zimbra from Yahoo. The free Zimbra desktop client runs on Linux, Mac and Windows and uses Web 2.0 technology to offer a fast and stable solution for email access. It supports POP, IMAP and iCAL so most online email and calendars will be supported.

The Zimbra desktop is currently in beta 3, and the big question of course is what will happen in the future. Will Yahoo be able to continue with Zimbra’s growth after taking over the company in 2007? Will Microsoft’s ambition to take over Yahoo influence Zimbra’s success? If you think it has a solid future, you can certainly consider Zimbra desktop your new local email client.

Source: eWeek