Yahoo Mail users can now access their email even when they are offline. Yahoo has just released the Yahoo Zimbra Desktop as a free download for both Mac and Windows.

Zimbra Desktop is an application that you install locally on your PC. It functions like a traditional e-mail client such as Microsoft Outlook or Apple’s Mail App. In fact, the Zimbra interface has been designed to closely mirror Outlook’s general look and functionality.

Zimbra Desktop’s main benefit is that it gives you offline access to your Webmail accounts – it even works with Gmail accounts. It also throws in some productivity elements into the mix – specifically spreadsheet and word-processing applications; however, these are quite rudimentary even compared to Google Docs applications.

The Zimbra Desktop’s email features are certainly impressive – tagging, conversations threading, comprehensive search, etc. However, it does not seem able to synchronize with the Yahoo Address Book or Calendars just yet.

The Zimbra Desktop technology originates from Zimbra Inc – a company that Yahoo acquired in September 2007. Its primary product is the Zimbra Collaboration Suite – a full-featured collaboration platform that supports email, instant messaging, group calendars & contacts, and document sharing.

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch is reporting that New South Wales Department of Education in Australia has accepted a bid to switch over the email accounts of 1.5 million students over from Microsoft Exchange to Gmail (via Google Apps).

NSW DoE was unahppy because their 2004 MS Exchange installation cost 33million and took 3 years. It’s unclear why the system took so long to setup. The Gmail roll-out will increase current email storage allocated for each student from 35MB to 6GB.

The move represents a big win for Google – which is breaking into Microsoft’s mail and office collaboration market, at every scale. Last year Macquarie University elected to shift the email accounts of its 68,000 students and recent graduates onto Gmail. This new instillation will create what’s being reported as the single largest private deployment of Gmail. On the other end of the scale small and medium business are also increasingly switching away from Microsoft Exchange and Outlook, to SaaS services like Google Apps, and Yahoo’s Zimbra.

Boon or bane? Email has radically transformed the way we communicate. Indeed, most knowledge workers would find it difficult to survive without the ease, reach & convenience of email.

However, email has its dark side too. Spam, lack of security and the sheer volume of email can make it as much a hinderance as a boost to productivity. The NPR website has a useful collection of articles and audio clips of how to tame the email beast.