Zulip, an excellent open source alternative to Slack

zulip

Zulip is a powerful open source application. Compete with Slack, IRC, Jabber and dozens of other group chat tools designed to help teams (whether open source projects or companies) collaborate effectively.

zulip supports quick search, drag and drop file uploads, image previews, group private messages, configurable notifications, Missed message emails, reduction message processing, and much more - essentially everything you could want.

The project It was originally developed by Zulip and was opened after its absorption by Dropbox under the Apache 2.0 license.

The server-side code is written in Python using the Django framework. The client software is available for Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, and an integrated web interface is also provided.

Zulip main features

zulip can be compared to the Slack service and seen as an intra-corporate analog of Twitter, used for communication and discussion of work problems in large groups of employees.

In addition to it provides means to track status and simultaneously participate in multiple discussions using the thread-like model to display messages, which is the best compromise between linking to rooms in Slack and a single public space on Twitter.

Simultaneously viewing all discussions as threads allows you to cover all groups in one place, while maintaining a logical separation between them.

Zulip features also include support for messaging the user in offline mode. (messages will be sent after they appear online), saving the entire discussion history on the server and the means to search the file.

It also has the support for built-in Markdown and text formatting, Tools for: group notifications, the ability to create closed groups, integration with Trac, Nagios, Githu b, Jenkins, Git, Subversion, JIRA, Puppet, RSS, Twitter and other services, tools to link visual tags with messages.

About Zulip version 2.0

Recently The launch of Zulip 2.0 was announced which includes some news that can be highlighted.
Among them we find in the server part of the integrated tools for backup and recovery.

As well as significantly improved tools for importing data from Slack, HipChat, Stride, and Gitter, that are optimized for importing very large databases with tens of thousands of users and millions of messages.

zulip

Improved LDAP integration and the ability to customize user avatars, custom profile fields, and user lockout status in Active Directory.

Greater support for communication

In addition to this, another positive point to highlight of this launch is the initial support for the Zoom video conferencing service, in addition to the video calling modules previously available through Google Hangouts and Jitsi.

Comprehensive editing tools were provided, including an interface to select emoji, links, links to video, preview markup, and contextual input supplement.

Administrators have the opportunity to delete all messages at once in the discussion (for example, to delete a new channel from test messages before sending invitations).

Of the other characteristics that you can highlight we find:

  • Support for setting user accessibility status and the ability to create your own status messages.
  • Added the ability to create reusable links with invitations to connect to channels.
  • Deployment of guest users who have limited rights has been stabilized.
  • Added module for integration with ReviewBoard.
  • Provided authentication system integration with Azure Active Directory.

Downloading and installing Zulip on Linux?

The Zulip developers provide Linux users with the application in an AppImage format which we can download from the terminal by executing the following command:

wget https://github.com/zulip/zulip-electron/releases/download/v2.3.82/Zulip-2.3.82-x86_64.AppImage -O zulip.AppImage

We give execution permissions with:
sudo chmod a+x zulip.AppImage

And we execute with:

./zulip.AppImage

Another installation method is through Snap packages. The installation is carried out by executing in the terminal:
sudo snap install zulip


Be the first to comment

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

*

*

  1. Responsible for the data: Miguel Ángel Gatón
  2. Purpose of the data: Control SPAM, comment management.
  3. Legitimation: Your consent
  4. Communication of the data: The data will not be communicated to third parties except by legal obligation.
  5. Data storage: Database hosted by Occentus Networks (EU)
  6. Rights: At any time you can limit, recover and delete your information.