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**oshunluvr** · May 08, 2012, 04:26 PM

I haven't tried it yet, but this looks interesting...

http://www.zimbra.com/products/desktop.html

**okie2003** · May 08, 2012, 04:58 PM

Thanks. It does look interesting. I will consider it.

**DarthMedicus** · May 12, 2012, 06:23 PM

Originally posted by oshunluvr View Post

I haven't tried it yet, but this looks interesting...

http://www.zimbra.com/products/desktop.html

I'm looking through the documentation for Zimbra, and find it an interesting suite. I wonder if anyone has a working install that could share their experiences with it. The docs claim that installing Zimbra Desktop is easy/simple. I may give it a try and report on its appearance and usability.

UPDATE:

So I installed Zimbra Desktop (and actually caught something in the terminal that would have caused a gimped install if I were not paying attention), and so far am liking the overall look of it. I will of course tweak its appearance a bit so that it can look nicer, but that can wait.

I'm running what's in my signature: a 64-bit install of Kubuntu (and loving many of the improvements in 12.04, by the way!), and during the install process, a warning scrolled past about ia32-libs needing to be installed for Zimbra to work properly. So I halted the install, went to synaptic (yes, I still use synaptic; muon hangs a little still for me at the most inconvenient of times...), installed the needed package, and when I was done went back to installing Zimbra. The install went flawlessly, and start-up was a cinch.

As I tinker with it more, I will let you all know how it is going. ^_^

-DM

**oshunluvr** · May 13, 2012, 09:17 PM

I just installed it as well. One thing didn't seem obvious at install time: The wiki says don't install as root, but you can't install it to the system (for other users) unless you are root. So if you launch the installer as root (via sudo) it will install. BUT when it asks you if you want to install data files for the user <INSERT YOUR NAME HERE> DON'T answer yes, because the resulting folder will be under your user, but with root ownership. Simply skip the data file step during install, THEN run /opt/zimbra/zdesktop/linux/user-install.pl as your normal user (without sudo) and it will work.

**woodsmoke** · May 13, 2012, 09:28 PM

Hi

Originally posted by okie2003 View Post

1) ability to move/import Evolution data to client
Kmail does that if you are particularly talking about the mail.
2) integration of calendar with calendar on panel.
Akonadi does that, or at least it did with Oneric
2) sync with Google calendar
Akonadi does that, except...... see the note below.
3) sync with my old Palm (Mint 9 does this great, but I don't think anything in KDE, even Evolution, can. So this is probably unachievable.)
If I remember correctly, Palms have always synced in Linux, I don't know about an "old one", but it should, Kpilot, I think, used to be the standard, I've always used a Win system, now google on an Android
4) The ability to locate my email/PIM data on a data partition and access from more that one Linux install via linked folder(s).

I have never done this, particular thing, but don't see any real reason why it could not be done. There are "direct" options in Kmail for it and Akonadi also has a directory feature.

I, personally, coordinate everything through Google instead of co-ordinating onboard.

I did this a few years back,......... dot, dot, dot... but I have seen negative things about Kontact.

When I last used it it could not function as a PIM.

Kmail has never seemed to really have any problems. The "problem" is in Akonadi functioning with google calendars, when one wants to use more than one calendar, there is some kind of Google situation wherein it defaults to the first calendar, the second situation being that Akonadi has to be "re-enabled" at random times when the calendars are synced with Google, and the last situation, which is more a "style thing" is getting a VERY LARGE "to do" list to print off in an acceptable manner. One has to do it as a .pdf for the formatting to "hold" and there is, at present, no way to put a pretty picture at the top, and such like.

There is another post here at the forum,

just a few days ago, that, apparently, has an actual, working, fix for Kontact and the google calendar situation. I've been too busy to test it. However, the formatting situation with the to-do list will probably stay in producing a .pdf.

Thanks for your advice.

You are quite welcome! And I hope that things get worked out to your satisfaction.

woodsmoke

**DarthMedicus** · May 13, 2012, 10:06 PM

Originally posted by oshunluvr View Post

I just installed it as well. One thing didn't seem obvious at install time: The wiki says don't install as root, but you can't install it to the system (for other users) unless you are root. So if you launch the installer as root (via sudo) it will install. BUT when it asks you if you want to install data files for the user <INSERT YOUR NAME HERE> DON'T answer yes, because the resulting folder will be under your user, but with root ownership. Simply skip the data file step during install, THEN run /opt/zimbra/zdesktop/linux/user-install.pl as your normal user (without sudo) and it will work.

Yes, that was something I forgot to mention, thanks for posting about that. Also, I managed to catch that as well and did NOT allow it to install data files while I was working as root for the initial part of the install. ^_^

**DarthMedicus** · May 15, 2012, 02:08 PM

Incidentally, if anyone is having an issue getting their external calendar accounts to sync with Zimbra (such as google calendar), this post from the Zimbra forums might help with your set up. I did not have to use the html link option, as the ical link worked just fine and I was synced in under a minute.

-DM

**vw72** · May 15, 2012, 04:03 PM

Originally posted by DarthMedicus View Post

Incidentally, if anyone is having an issue getting their external calendar accounts to sync with Zimbra (such as google calendar), this post from the Zimbra forums might help with your set up. I did not have to use the html link option, as the ical link worked just fine and I was synced in under a minute.

-DM

I can get my google calendar to synch, however for any calendars that I set up as an ical, I cannot add appointments, just for the gmail account. Have you tried adding appointments to additional calendars?

**DarthMedicus** · May 17, 2012, 12:35 AM

Originally posted by vw72 View Post

I can get my google calendar to synch, however for any calendars that I set up as an ical, I cannot add appointments, just for the gmail account. Have you tried adding appointments to additional calendars?

Not as of yet, but I will try it later during the day to see if it affects me, as well.

-DM

**vw72** · May 17, 2012, 07:12 AM

I should clarify that as any additional google calendars that I set up as an ical, I cannot add appointments. Only the primary google calendar associated with my gmail address lets me add appointments. (I have several google calendars, but one gmail address).

**DarthMedicus** · May 17, 2012, 11:03 AM

Hmmm....this is odd. Now my default profile is showing on the calendar along with the "iCal" feed that I added to Zimbra. I made some changes directly in google calendar, and the changes showed within 2 minutes on the app, but only in the default profile. The "iCal" feed has yet to update after a good fifteen minutes.

So I decided to make a few changes from within the app to see how that would work. First, I added content and changed the times for a few of my appointments in the default profile, then synced the account. Seems to work both ways with the default calendar on the account. Next, I created my teaching calendar for some courses I will facilitate in the coming months. Placing two of the five dates planned into the google calendar side, I synced my account and it showed up as a separate calendar. But when I went into Zimbra to try to add additional days, it would only add them to the default/main calendar.

So using the ical option, I have completely reproduced vw72's issue down to a "t". So I decided to change the format from ical to XML to see what would happen. Nothing. So I went with the public links to set up the feed with HTML, and no dice there either. I am wondering if this may need to be reported as a "bug" for the devs to work on over at Zimbra?

-DM

**Snowhog** · May 17, 2012, 07:58 PM

I know that this will get some 'not for me' replies, but I use Kontact/Kmail and have absolutely no issues with it. None. Nada. It just works.

**ScottyK** · May 17, 2012, 08:23 PM

I've been running with Thunderbird for several years now. I'm sure there are several excellent email clients out there, but I know how to use Thunderbird, and for me it "Just Works".

**DarthMedicus** · May 17, 2012, 10:15 PM

@ Snowhog: I actually tried Kmail, but had some issues syncing my gmail account for some reason.

@ ScottyK: Thunderbird was THE mail client for me for years, then I went to Seamonkey for almost two years. The reason why I am giving Zimbra a full tryout here is because it adds the social media (Twitter) element to the PIM/Email client arena.

I actually like being able to check my Twitter feed, fire off a couple of emails, trade posts with some people in my "industry", check my calendar for conflicts with functions that I am being invited to, all without opening a web browser or logging into different sites. My only hang-up so far is what vw72 and I seem to be experiencing with respect to editing multiple calendars within a single google account. I'm sure that once the devs over there look into it, they may issue a fix. Otherwise, I'm loving it. ^_^

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