Zimbra officially embraced by Ubuntu

[hariharan]

Zimbra, the open-source e-mail software that Yahoo acquired for $350 million last year, is officially coming to Ubuntu Linux.

Coinciding with this week's LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco, Zimbra has announced a partnership with Ubuntu parent company Canonical.

Ubuntu users have been able to access Zimbra for the past year. But now, the e-mail software will be in the Ubuntu Partner Repository, providing easy access to both offline and online Yahoo Mail, Gmail, AOL Mail, and any IMAP or POP e-mail accounts. Zimbra also offers document and spreadsheet functions, as well as mashup features with services like Flickr, Amazon.com, and Yahoo Maps.

Offline e-mail and documents are one area where Yahoo has beaten Google to the punch--but there have been strong hints that engineers at the latter may be rolling out something similar soon through Gears.

"Since we first announced general availability of Zimbra for Ubuntu last year, we have seen incredible adoption within the Ubuntu community," Andy Pflaum, senior director of business management for Yahoo's Zimbra division, said in a statement. "We are eager to offer our world-class collaboration experience, Yahoo Zimbra Desktop, to the vibrant community of Ubuntu users worldwide."