I'm sure I'm not alone amongst the ubuntu-uk crowd, in that I run my own mailserver.  With ubuntu, it was very easy to set up postfix and cyrus, and retrieve my email via IMAP.  The great thing about IMAP is that wherever I am, providing I have an internet connection, I am constantly up to date with my email.  It's all out there on 'the cloud' - the buzzword of marketeers in the IT industry in the moment.  To have data constantly accessible is fantastic - no need to work about syncronising between different PCs and the like - it's all there 24/7 (unless I throttle my VPS.. which has been known).

I've used squirrelmail, roundcube webmail, horde, and Zimbra on my server over the past two years.  The first two are targetted more at the individual email user (though can serve multiple unique accounts), whereas the latter two are groupware suites.. which include tools for collaboration, shared calendaring, shared email, file storage & exchange .etc.  However, they were a bit 'overkill' for a server running about 4 mail accounts.

Me-ware

The problem is, that I want the functionality of packages like horde and zimbra - but scaled down to suit me.  I want to be able  to syncronise my phone with my calendar, I'd love to have a centralised LDAP-based addressbook, which I could other packages to - but I don't need a multi-tiered directory service.  You might say I'm being a bit naive... the software is free so why complain when it does loads more than it needs to?

Well, Bongo to you.

Bongo?

Bongo is a project that caught my eye possibly over 12 months ago, when Daviey in #ubuntu-uk gave me a demo.  It's a smart looking project, that looks to answer exactly my needs.  It looks clean, simple - is open source and sticks to open standards.. so it'll link it with it's bigger cousins (like horde and zimbra) should I want to share calendars .etc.. but it's also targetted at users.. not organisations.  0.5 release is due out before linuxexpo in London, 23-25th October 2008. I intend to keep my eye on it, and hopefully even help out a bit; and get it running my own system aasap.

In response to this BBC article.

Looking at the 'big picture' we can see that there's a fair amount of potential conflict in such a merger between these two behemoths - however, there's also much that MS can gain from a takeover. Yahoo! is a strong brand, but has played second fiddle to google for far too long, in the UK at least.Their attempt at partnering with BT to increase their UK market share didn't have the desired effect, and Yahoo! are clearly struggling against Google who are even more on the ascendency.

I think there is a clear difference in philosophy between the two "Internet Portals" as they were once known. Google have always been open, and allowed the user to view the 'net' as it was. Their homepage historically has always been very 'empty' (before the days of iGoogle) - whereas Yahoo! wanted to frame the net and view it within a Yahoo! environment, so to speak. This has ultimately backfired, with the generic 'net' far more creative and awesome than any 'branded' net could be.In such a way, the relative paths of Yahoo! and MS appear to go down the same path. Providing their customers with a quality service - as long as you're a customer you'll reap the benefits. Whereas Google have gone for a more "laissez-faire" approach. They contribute (but don't control) a number of software projects. They donate their time and expertise in the way of the "Google Summer of Code" - which many companies and individuals have benefitted from - yet they can still wrap-up and package competitive SaaS software.

Moving to a different point, the main worry of this merger (should it go ahead) is what would happen to Zimbra. It was recently acquired by Yahoo! possibly to fortify their ageing web-mail interface. As one of the most prominent exchange-challenging mail server suites - I'm quite worried that an MS buyout could see that project severely disabled in the name of "killing competition." If so it would mark Microsoft's first attempt at being able to knock open source development... we shall wait and see.