2022-10-05 20:05:19 +02:00
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## Startup inspired by MIT's messaging system
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Zulip was originally created by Zulip, Inc., a small startup in Cambridge,
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Massachusetts. Zulip, Inc. was founded in August 2012 by the
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[MIT](https://www.mit.edu/) alumni team that previously created the
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[Ksplice](https://www.ksplice.com) software for live-patching a running Linux
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kernel. Zulip was inspired by the [BarnOwl](https://barnowl.mit.edu/) client
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for the [Zephyr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_(protocol)) instant
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messaging protocol, and the incredible community that Zephyr supported at MIT.
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## Early acquisition by Dropbox
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Zulip, Inc. was acquired by [Dropbox](https://www.dropbox.com/) in
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early 2014, while the product was still in private beta, which put
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Zulip development on hold. However, because they loved Zulip's
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topic-based threading experience, Zulip's early customers [continued
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using Zulip all through that time](/case-studies/recurse-center/).
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> “We strongly prefer Zulip to other options for several reasons – its message
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> threading being a key one.”
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>
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> — [Nick Bergson-Shilcock](https://github.com/nicholasbs), Recurse Center
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> [co-founder and CEO](https://www.recurse.com/team), September 2015
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## Zulip released as open source!
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In 2015, a year and a half after the acquisition, Dropbox generously decided to
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[release Zulip as open-source software](https://blogs.dropbox.com/tech/2015/09/open-sourcing-zulip-a-dropbox-hack-week-project/).
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A group of Zulip's developers [and early
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users](https://www.recurse.com/blog/90-zulip-supporting-oss-at-the-recurse-center)
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spent Dropbox's Hack Week preparing Zulip's code base for release. The
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entire product, including the server, Android and iOS mobile apps, and
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desktop apps for Mac, Linux and Windows, was released [under the Apache
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2 license](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/blob/main/LICENSE) with
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complete version control history.
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The Zulip community is incredibly grateful to both Dropbox and those
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enthusiastic early users for making the Zulip open source project possible.
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Dropbox has no ongoing relationship with the Zulip project.
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## Zulip's second founding
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At first, the [Zulip open-source project](https://github.com/zulip/zulip#readme)
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was maintained by the project's founder and leader [Tim
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Abbott](/team/#the-core-team) on nights and weekends. In the months following
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the open-source release, the project quickly gained contributors and users.
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It soon became clear that guiding the contributor community in
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developing a world-class team chat product would require leadership
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from a dedicated team. Thus, in April 2016, Tim Abbott founded a
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[mission-driven](https://blog.zulip.com/2021/04/28/why-zulip-is-on-github-sponsors/)
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company, Kandra Labs, to steward and financially sustain Zulip’s
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development. Incorporating as a business has helped Zulip attract top
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talent, and has made Zulip eligible for [large innovation
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grants](https://seedfund.nsf.gov/) from the US National Science
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Foundation, which Kandra Labs was awarded in 2017 and 2018.
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## Early days as an open-source company
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In its early days, the Zulip community was focused on three main goals:
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- Turning an innovative product (that had been in private beta when its
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development was put on hold) into a **polished application**, complete with
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enterprise-ready features like [single sign-on
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options](/help/configure-authentication-methods) and [hundreds of
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integrations](/integrations/).
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- Making Zulip more **widely available**. In mid-2017, Kandra Labs
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launched two products: a hosted [Zulip Cloud](/plans/) service, and
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an enterprise support offering for [self-hosted](/self-hosting/)
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deployments. Zulip’s original customers were migrated from Dropbox’s
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servers to the new Zulip Cloud offering, fully preserving their chat
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history. Despite the acquisition by Dropbox, Zulip's customers have
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thus [enjoyed uninterrupted
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service](https://blog.zulip.com/2021/12/17/why-zulip-will-stand-the-test-of-time/)
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since 2013.
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- **Building a vibrant community around the project**, with effort and
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care dedicated to making it [easy to get
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started](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/overview/contributing.html)
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2022-11-15 19:45:32 +01:00
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contributing to Zulip. The Zulip development community gathered at
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2022-10-05 20:05:19 +02:00
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PyCon sprints [in
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2016](https://blog.zulip.org/2016/10/13/static-types-in-python-oh-mypy/),
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and led the largest PyCon sprint ever [in
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2017](https://us.pycon.org/2017/community/sprints/), with over 75
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developers contributing to Zulip over course of the 4-day event. By
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late 2016, [more than 150
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people](https://github.com/zulip/zulip/graphs/contributors) from all
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over the world had contributed almost 1000 pull requests to the
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software, and the Zulip project was moving faster than when the
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original startup employed 11 full-time engineers. Zulip also began
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mentoring [Google Summer of
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Code](https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/) contributors
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in 2016, and continues to [mentor 15-20 outreach program
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participants](https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/outreach/overview.html)
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every year.
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We are proud to have achieved those early goals for the
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project.
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## Zulip continues to thrive
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These days, we regularly hear from users that they prefer Zulip's user
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experience to that of team chat products produced by some of the
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world's largest companies. More than 1000 people have contributed a
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total of over 60,000 commits to the Zulip project, which has more than
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16 thousand stars on GitHub.
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In 2020, Zulip experienced an extraordinary increase in usage as a result of
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the Covid-19 pandemic changing how people work. During this extremely difficult
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time, we found joy in hearing from users about how Zulip has helped them make
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[remote work](/for/business/), [research collaborations](/for/research/),
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[teaching](/for/education/), and [events and conferences](/for/events/)
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successful.
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Starting August 2022, [Slack’s free plan change caused an
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exodus](https://blog.zulip.com/2022/08/26/why-slacks-free-plan-change-is-causing-an-exodus/)
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of open-source projects, researchers, and a wide variety of other
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negatively impacted communities to Zulip and other chat
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platforms. [Data imports](/help/import-from-slack) from Slack into
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Zulip Cloud increased an incredible 40x in the month after Slack’s
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[announcement](https://slack.com/blog/news/pricing-and-plan-updates).
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## Press highlights
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- March 2022:
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[Deep-dive](https://opensource.com/article/22/3/open-source-chat-zulip) into
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how one open-source community uses Zulip published on
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[opensource.com](https://opensource.com/).
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- June 2021: Zulip is covered in a [VentureBeat
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article](https://venturebeat.com/2021/06/18/cutting-slack-when-open-source-and-team-chat-tools-collide/)
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about open-source Slack alternatives.
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- February 2021: TechRadar publishes a [Zulip overview and installation
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walkthrough](https://www.techradar.com/how-to/set-up-your-own-slack-like-chat-system-on-linux).
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- July 2021: An in-depth [review of
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Zulip](https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/28/zulip_open_source_chat_collaboration_software/)
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is published in *[The Register](https://www.theregister.com)*.
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> “In fact now it seems strange to me to just fire off messages in Slack with no
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> subject – that's chaos, madness. The genius of subject lines is that you can
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> quickly and easily catch up on the messages you missed in your off-hours...
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> This feature alone saves me hours a week.”
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>
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> — [Zulip
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> review](https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/28/zulip_open_source_chat_collaboration_software/)
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> in *The Register*
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- [July
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2021](https://www.quantamagazine.org/lean-computer-program-confirms-peter-scholze-proof-20210728/)
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and [October
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2020](https://www.quantamagazine.org/building-the-mathematical-library-of-the-future-20201001/):
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Zulip earns mentions in Quanta Magazine articles about the [formalization of
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mathematics](/case-studies/lean/).
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> “Every day, dozens of like-minded mathematicians gather on an online forum
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> called Zulip to build what they believe is the future of their field.”
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>
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> — *Quanta Magazine*, [“Building the Mathematical Library of the
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> Future“](https://www.quantamagazine.org/building-the-mathematical-library-of-the-future-20201001/)
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- November 2020: An interview with Tim Abbott is [featured in Linux
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Format](https://linuxformat.com/archives?issue=269).
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- September 2020: [TFiR](https://www.tfir.io/) publishes an [in-depth video
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interview](https://www.tfir.io/zulip-is-slack-for-busy-project-managers/) with
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Zulip founder and lead developer Tim Abbott.
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- July 2017: Podcast [interview with Tim
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Abbott](https://www.pythonpodcast.com/zulip-chat-with-tim-abbott-episode-118/)
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is featured on the Python podcast
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[Podcast.__init__](https://www.pythonpodcast.com/about/).
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## Major server releases and product announcements
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- May 2022: Zulip
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[announces](https://blog.zulip.com/2022/05/05/public-access-option/) the
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general availability of a [public access option](/help/public-access-option).
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Open-source projects and other open communities can now offer one-click access
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(no login required!) to part or all of their Zulip chat.
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- March 2022: [Zulip Server 5.0
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released](https://blog.zulip.com/2022/03/29/zulip-5-0-released/), with over
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7000 new commits. 157 people contributed commits to Zulip since the 4.0
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release.
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- July 2021: In response to [interest from educators](/case-studies/ucsd/),
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Zulip
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[launches](https://blog.zulip.com/2021/07/26/zulip-for-education-launch/) a
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dedicated [Zulip for Education](/for/education/) offering.
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> “Zulip has the best user experience of all the chat apps I’ve tried. With the
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> discussion organized by topic within each stream, Zulip is the only app that
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> makes hundreds of conversations manageable.”
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>
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> — [Tobias Lasser](https://ciip.in.tum.de/people/lasser.html), lecturer at the
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> Technical University of Munich Department of Informatics [[customer
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> story](/case-studies/tum/)]
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- May 2021: [Zulip Server 4.0
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released](https://blog.zulip.com/2021/05/13/zulip-4-0-released/), with over 4300
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new commits by 137 contributors.
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> “This has been an unusually long release cycle, because I took a few months off
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> work on Zulip to welcome my new daughter Zoe. Coming back to work was a great
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> stress-test of Zulip’s asynchronous model: I received over 20,000 messages in
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> chat.zulip.org during my paternity leave. I really enjoyed reading everything
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> and replying to the hundreds of topics where I had something to contribute or
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> someone to thank. Systematically reading months of history would have been
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> impossible with any other tool!”
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> —Tim Abbott, Zulip founder and lead developer, [Zulip 4.0 release blog
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> post](https://blog.zulip.com/2021/05/13/zulip-4-0-released/)
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- July 2020: [Zulip Server 3.0
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released](https://blog.zulip.com/2020/07/16/zulip-3-0-released/), with 4100
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new commits by 110 contributors.
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- March 2019: [Zulip Server 2.1
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released](https://blog.zulip.com/2019/12/13/zulip-2-1-released/), with 3190
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new commits by 123 contributors.
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- March 2019: [Zulip Server 2.0
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released](https://blog.zulip.com/2019/03/01/zulip-2-0-released/), with 1900
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new commits by 87 contributors.
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- November 2018: [Zulip Server 1.9
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released](https://blog.zulip.com/2018/11/07/zulip-1-9-released/), with 3300
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new commits by 81 contributors.
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- April 2018: [Zulip Server 1.8
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released](https://blog.zulip.com/2018/04/18/zulip-1-8-released/), with over
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3500 new commits by 131 contributors.
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- October 2017: [Zulip Server 1.7
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released](https://blog.zulip.com/2017/10/25/zulip-server-1-7-released/), with 3675
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new commits by about 100 contributors.
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- June 2017: [Zulip Server 1.6
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released](https://blog.zulip.com/2017/06/06/zulip-server-1-6-released/), with
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over 3100 new commits by more than 150 contributors.
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## Support
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- Zulip is on [GitHub Sponsors](https://github.com/sponsors/zulip),
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[Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/zulip), and [Open
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Collective](https://opencollective.com/zulip). Our [blog
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post](https://blog.zulip.com/2021/04/28/why-zulip-is-on-github-sponsors/)
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explains Zulip’s values-driven approach and why we ask for support.
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- Kandra Labs is supported by nearly $1M in <a
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href="https://seedfund.nsf.gov/">SBIR grants</a> from the US National Science
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Foundation.
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- Zulip has benefited enormously from the work of over 100 contributors
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supported by [Google Summer of Code](https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/).
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