Zimbra is making the Zimbra Desktop beta version 3 available for download today, continuing to push against Microsoft's Outlook by offering to be your all-in-one email client.
I set up the open-source Zimbra Desktop on a laptop running Windows XP. The install requires a smidge under 160 MB of disk space to install, and I was easily able to sync up my Gmail account to it. Overall, the interface is clean, quick, and responsive. Syncing my 1.3 gig Gmail inbox took a while, but was mostly painless. The client allows for time-savers like clicking on an address within an email to bring up a map or clicking on a date to open up your calender, as well as easy tagging of emails and easy searches of your inbox. The desktop client also incorporates Zimbra Documents, a document and spreadsheet program, Zimbra Briefcase, a file uploading service, and Zimbra Tasks, a task-management system.
Zimbra, which we've written about before, was acquired by Yahoo for $350 million in 2007. The first version of the Zimbra Desktop beta launched a year and a half ago, and the third version was announced today at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention. The company also offers its open-source email and calendar server Zimbra Collaboration Suite, which VentureBeat founder Matt Marshall reviewed enthusiastically in February of this year, writing, "Zimbra pushes collaboration features a lot further than Microsoft’s offerings and does so for a very low cost."