Q4 2023: Carbonio Community Edition (Carbonio CE) is fully developed with features ready to empower your digital workspace.
Carbonio Community Edition (Carbonio CE) is a free and open-source (FOSS) email and collaboration platform designed by Zextras. It is a complete email solution, allowing organizations to maintain digital sovereignty through on-premises self-hosted servers, ensuring privacy and control over your communications.
As we arrive at the end of 2023, Carbonio Community Edition (Carbonio CE) has evolved through an iterative process driven by community feedback, continuously integrating new features and updates. These enhancements have fortified its capabilities, making it poised and fully equipped for deployment as an excellent choice for digital transformation.
Product Evolution
The journey of Carbonio Community Edition (Carbonio CE) over the past two years has been marked by significant milestones, continual improvements, and strategic updates, all propelled by invaluable input and feedback from our vibrant community. These gradual improvements have propelled Carbonio CE towards its current state of completion, fulfilling its original vision, i.e. providing users with a standalone, private platform for the digital workplace free from third-party integrations.
This journey can be delineated through significant iterations:
1st Iteration: Initial Release
Carbonio CE makes its debut, marking its availability with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
2nd Iteration: Files and Co-editing
Integration of a full-fledged file management and collaborative editing solution within the platform.
3rd Iteration: Admin Panel
The introduction of the Carbonio CE Admin Panel laid the groundwork for a comprehensive administration console.
4th Iteration: RHEL 8
Support extended to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, widening the platform’s compatibility and deployment options.
5th Iteration: Chats and Video Chats
Enhanced communications through secure, integrated private text messaging and video chats within Carbonio CE.
Chats and Video Chats: Final Pieces of the Puzzle
With the recent addition of text messaging and video chats, Carbonio CE has now achieved a comprehensive set of functionalities that align precisely with the original vision of the software, making it a complete digital workplace solution. These integrations represent the final pieces of the puzzle, enriching the platform’s communication capabilities and solidifying its status as a complete and self-contained environment for organizations seeking privacy.
The Chats significantly enhances user value by centralizing communication tools within the platform. This integration streamlines workflows, enabling users to effortlessly connect, collaborate, and hold discussions without switching between multiple applications or compromising security.
Hardware Requirements
The following table illustrates the requirements for each node within a Carbonio CE installation, which can vary based on the infrastructure’s size, encompassing the services operational on each node and the quantity and capacity of individual mailboxes. For instance, if a 10GB quota is planned for each of the 20 users, this table indicates an approximate total disk space requirement of 250GB to accommodate the specified quotas.
| CPU | Intel/AMD 64-bit 4 cores min./8+ cores vCPU |
| RAM | 16 GB min., 32+ GB recommended |
| Disk space (operating system and Carbonio CE) | 50 GB |
Software Requirements
Carbonio CE is optimized for 64-bit CPUs and is compatible with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Server Edition or RHEL 8 installations, ensuring seamless integration for node deployment.
Virtualization Platforms
Here are the supported virtualization platforms for Carbonio CE:
- VMware vSphere 6.x
- VMware vSphere 7.x
- XenServer
- KVM
Virtualbox & VMware Workstation are intended solely for testing purposes.
Availability and Access
Download Carbonio CE for free from our official website here:
Open Source E-mail and Collaboration | Carbonio CE | Zextras
You can access all official repositories and supported platforms, such as Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. The documentation website also provides comprehensive installation guides, ensuring smooth deployment for new and experienced admins.
Effortless Migration
We have also provided migration guides from Zimbra, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365, enabling users to transition smoothly from these platforms to Carbonio CE. These guides offer step-by-step instructions to facilitate hassle-free migrations, ensuring continuity and ease of use.
Support and Community
We also invite our users to engage in community forums or discussion boards to seek advice, collaborate, and share insights with fellow users and experts. The platform fosters a collaborative community atmosphere, encouraging users to collectively exchange ideas, troubleshoot issues, and discover best practices for leveraging Carbonio CE.
Our dedicated technical and development team remains actively engaged, committed to personally assisting every user, addressing their queries, and ensuring a supportive environment for seamless platform utilization. We are here to facilitate and guide, fostering a vibrant and responsive community dedicated to harnessing the full capabilities of Carbonio CE.
Future Roadmap
Moving forward, the trend of evolution and refinement in Carbonio CE will persist, driven by continuous community feedback, ensuring ongoing enhancements. Regular updates will remain integral, not just for the platform’s growth but also to fortify security measures even more.
This commitment to evolution aligns with our vision of making Carbonio CE the foremost open-source digital workplace solution. In line with Zextras’ mission, we aim to empower organizations with a robust, user-driven platform that evolves in tandem with the community’s needs, ensuring it remains the pinnacle of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) digital workplace solutions.