Zimbra on Tuesday announced the launch of Zimbra Desktop, an offline-capable version of their collaboration and messaging software for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux operating systems.
Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) is a messaging and collaboration application designed for enterprise, education and other markets. Leveraging Asynchronous Javascript and XML (AJAX), Zimbra is a Web-based application that provides user with e-mail, contact management, shared calendar, Voice over IP (VoIP) communications and online document authoring. Initially available as a Web-based service for computers with persistent Internet connections, the software has already spawned a mobile version designed for use on Treo, Nokia, Windows Mobile 5 and BlackBerry smartphones.
Zimbra Desktop has been vetted for use with leading Web browsers including Firefox and Safari. The software enables users to have e-mail support, search tools, contact management, document editing and other functionality while they’re out of the office and without a connection. When you reconnect, changes are automatically synced to the Zimbra server.
The Zimbra Desktop software is described as an alpha program, which means it’s still at a fairly early stage of development. It’s available to users of the free Open Source edition and the Network Edition of Zimbra — pricing and final availability have not yet been set.