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Evolution 1.0 Beta 1 Released
battery841 writes: "Evolution 1.0 Beta 1 has been released. An announcement has been released. The RPMs and tarballs can be downloaded from Ximian. This is the first beta release, and a major step to the much awaited 1.0 release." The last time I tried Evolution it was very buggy, but that was a long time ago - time to give it another try.
The last time I tried Evolution it was very buggy
Case in point: George "Dubya" Bush
*rim shot*
Erhmm... maybe it's just me, but when I go to ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/unstable/sources/evo lution I see LATEST-IS-0.10.
:)
I can see the latest snapshots which are 0.10+cvsxxxx, but well, where do I download this? I run a debian system without ximian and would like to download via deb (the old spidermonkey.* sources.list is gone) without having to depend on all the ximian stuff and replace half my libs.
And I'm sure that'll get worked out relatively soon, but in the interm, where is the source!?
The only problem I have with mozilla mail is that there is no support for x509 certificates, which is why I was so happy with seeing the evolution Certificate option (which doesn't work). As soon as SOMEONE other than netscape does x509 certs, I'm ditching that program :)
First of all, the link to the sources provided in the original announcement and the "latest release" page on ximian.com has the
First impression is that it looks great! Well, honestly my first impression was "fscking peice of
I'm not going to bitch at UI problems here
You have to go to your folders to get to imap mailboxes. When you click on something the mailboxes 'tab' immediately dissapears without what you clicked on highlighting, so you don't know if you mis-clicked or not (unless its showing all the time from the view menu).
I've been so looking forward to the nice integrated GUI gpg support. Sadly, my key id (which the interface for sucks btw, you are not given any idication what you're supposed to put in there or where to get the information from) is NOT SAVED when I apply the settings.
S/MIME certificate support. Oh god I thought I was going to blow a load when I saw this. I have been waiting for ages for this in something other than netscape mail (which sucks) and I was overjoyed to have this. Certificate ID? What is that? Where do I get it? The "digital ids" button does nothing. When I type in my name (no clue what else to do) it isn't saved either, so I guess it doesn't matter.
When I click on tasks I get asked to pick a time zone. When I click on calendar I get asked to pick a time zone. Shouldn't they be able to share information?
Even after picking the time zone it doesn't appear in the tools-> settings menu
Under tasks tools->tasks preferences doesn't do anything
At one point I got a 0x0 window that I couldn't get rid of. It didn't dissapear when I shut down evolution and I ended up having to killall evolution-mail to get rid of it
The "Define Views" is a neat idea, but very buggy.
If the main component crashes (which it did thanks to the above item about defining views) wouldn't it be a good idea to give the user the option to restart it?
Threaded message list option is not saved
.debs have features turned off or something.
All in all a bit dissapointing, especially for the pgp and s/mime options. Also absent were smtp/imap/pop3 over ssl (which I thought were said to be there, but maybe not). These things would be good to have, and would (IMHO) show the mark of a truely mature and advanced mail client (and would make me an instant believer!
So conclusion, much better, and probably great for day to day mail, but still has a ways to go before I'll switch. I'm going to go and file some bugs now, and maybe build from source in case the
iirc you have to still select all mails in a folder; ctrl+y ( apply filters ) to apply filters to stored mail.
At least once it failed
Also the mailbox format is easy to remover - I corrupted my inbox several times now -- often all I have to do is remove the *.ibex for that folder and it's fixed...When pine uses imap, it doesn't use any mailboxes locally and completely relies on the server. Since I use Cyrus, it allows me to have >100000 messages in a folder without any loss of performance.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
...was one released yesterday, and it was kinda ok except that it has a poor idea when to ask for passwords for IMAP mailboxes, and was hard to convince to apply filters to the whole mailbox if it was already cached. However the main problem for me was that it always caches mail received through IMAP locally -- I have huge mailboxes that I never want to see sorted, so I prefer pine's way of handling IMAP where cache is small (and fits in memory), and messages are read only when user scrolls to them.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
It'll be nice to use a graphical mail reader that supports SIMAP and SSMTP and PGP/GPG.
You mean that crappy movie that was in the theaters was only a 'beta'? I want my 8 bucks back!
</joke>
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
Doesn't beta exactly mean the feature list is frozen?
If you are using potato, you can grab what is effectively an RC beta (1.0.91) from ftp.ximian.com/pub/evolution/your_distro_here/ The more it gets tested, the better the next RC release will be. [Disclosure: I'm the Ximian Bugmaster.]
IAAL,BIANLY
You can also read an functional overview of Evolution and what it has to offer.
Since Evolution is not feature frozen, we are polishing the GUI and killing all bugs that we have reported so far, you can help by going to the developers page and learn about how to report bugs on Evolution or how to send your favorite patch and improvement.
You can get Evolution using Red Carpet (that is how I installed it myself a few minutes ago). Select the `Ximian Preview' channel and then select Evolution, all the required software will be installed for you.
Finally, now that I am pasting URLs, I would like to say that on the preview channel you can also find the latest two great contributions of Ximian to GNOME (plug, plug). The Ximian Setup Tools is there for people to test (ie, unified System Administration across Unix systems, with a nice and friendly GNOME UI). The technology behind it is extremely nice. And we are also previewing the Metatheme selector, which allows you to change all the theme setting across the board in your desktop.
Love,
Miguel.
> There are advantages to doing OO code in C -- it shows you exactly what is going on, and doesn't hide anything from you.
No, in fact it's all up front for you to use, because you *have* to. Inheritance? Manual. Polymorphism? Manual. Overloading? Manual. Hell, why not just write an OO language in C and use that, you could still say you're programming in C (how many C apps end up implementing their own little languages after all?) Isn't the point of a high-level languge to insulate you from the low level details? God knows I certainly don't concern myself with reference locality or pointer arithmetic when I'm programming in python.
--
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
0.11-ximian.2 is the beta.
Celebrate the finer things in life
what do I have to do to try the beta of Evolution? Give up my system over to the Ximian package cruncher? Will I still have a functionnal Kde? Last time I checked, Ximian mangled my installation and just simply "simplified" my menus. Shoudn't there be an alternative between tarballs and "All my rpms are belong to Ximian"? I would like to try the latest release of that sofware, but I sure don't want to nuke my system... is it normal that i need to set up a virtual machine in vmware just to check out a mail software?
---------- ovidius naso
Evolution has one of the most complete IMAP implementations in a mail client, especially an open source one. Evolution also supports iMIP and iTIP scheduling.
The problem with the Outlook files is that they are in a proprietry database format, and the only way to access the data stored in them is via mapi.dll. The same with Exchanges messaging, the over the wire protocol is proprietry.
I understand that Michael Zucchi is working on a system where you can point Evolution at your pine mailbox and have it read that, so it means that you can use Evolution locally and then pine remotely. You'd be best to ask the evolution-list @ ximian.com to find out more
Come on, this is an article about Evolution (which looks like it's getting very interesting) -- what's the point of sneering at theKompany?
One of the reasons mindless trolls have left to refuse to use QT and KDE is that QT is GPLed, not LGPLed, which makes it impossible to write closed source programs using QT without paying TrollTech a licence fee. In contrast, you are perfectly free to write a closed source application using GTK and Gnome, because they are LGPLed.
So, you are using a system which makes it easier to produce closed source programs, and you are sneering at a company which produces closed source programs. Are you feeling ok?
-- Help Digitise the Public Domain at DP.
Don't go away thinking that C++ is some paragon of Object Orientated virtue - it's a horrible mixture of low level and high level, with bits of generic programming (templates) and functional programming (STL) thrown in for good measure; all mixed and blended to produce a very unintuitive language, and one of the largest specifications since PL/1.
There are advantages to doing OO code in C -- it shows you exactly what is going on, and doesn't hide anything from you. Most people would use lots of boiler-plate templates, and just fill in the blanks.
If you want simplicity and ease of use, try some real high-level languages. Python, for example, shows you that mixed metaphor languages don't have to be a cluttered, unreadable mess. Lisp (and its modern relatives like Scheme) is beautifully pure, with a simple specification (ignoring the abomination of CL), and is also very readable once you've hit your head against the monitor 5 or 6 times (although I wouldn't want to code it in an editor without a decent Lisp-mode).
Getting back to the main point: KDE may be more polished, but at the moment Gnome has better apps in many areas. Hopefully, Gnome will gain polish, KDE will gain applications, and in 2 years time we will have two excellent free UNIX desktops.
-- Help Digitise the Public Domain at DP.
Don't forget the main unspoken point of KDE and Gnome and many of their applications ! their aim is to bring Windows users to Linux, not to convince geeks who already use Linux and know about Mutt or Pine or whatever, and can also find their way through the multitude of other Linux applications. So the applications need to feel loke Windows applications to attract Windows users duh !
A nameless, spineless, quivering hunk of sea-jelly (just kidding, I see the smiley!) wrote: "You'd written this beforehand, hadn't you? ;)"
/., perhaps I should just keep it handy for easy changing and pasting! Complaining that slashdot is too much like freshmeat is sort of silly, IMO ... completely different types of forum, even when the subjects overlap. Plus, the people who work on freshmeat are weird.
... if you visit a place (IRL, on the web, in reading an involving book, whatever)it should strike you as odd if things *aren't* different, if there aren't signs of change and vitality. Otherwise, we could just pick the Ultimate Average Slashdot Story and just run it every 58.7 minutes, and robotically post averaged-out comments, applying averaged-out moderation points ...
;)
No, but perhaps I should have. I didn't know this beta was out until I saw the story on the page and started reading the comments.
Since it's a predictable genre of comment whenever software releases are mentioned on
Added to which, there's just something weirdly negative about complaining when something in the world doesn't perfectly conform to some arbitrary vision of what it *should* be based on prior experiences
that would be boring and dumb
(note -- by 'places in the world' I mean ones not under your own direct complete control -- it would be weird to come home and find Weird Al feeding your kitten anchovies from a tin, especially if you don't have a kitten already.)
Anyhow.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
In fact, relatively few software releases reach Slashdot (a few more if you count the sections, where slightly more esoteric releases might reach, say, the Apache section).
A 1.0 version (OK, a 1.0 beta in this case) of what is one of the most-awaited pieces of software in the Free software world is not the typical announcement you'd find on Freshmeat -- are you nodding along with me, or shaking your head in disagreement?
Yesterday, Freshmeat listed around 70 pieces of software, and doubtless other sites (like the apps page of KDE, or the recent software of GNOME's site) listed apps which were not also listed at freshmeat. Some of that software is probably just as interesting overall as Evolution, and a lot of smaller pieces are certainly interesting when viewed for what they might turn into (sound aps plus video aps, some cool possibilities for the near future).
Slashdot has a lot of other types of stories, but heck, since a lot of people here are interested in Free / Open Source software, is it not appropriate that occasionally we mention ... Free / Open Source software?
Also, completely serious, if you know of stories you'd rather see here, submit them :). That's where the vast majority of stories on this site come from. A lot of people pointed out the release of Evolution, and besides, it's something that's been the topic of both excitement and criticism for a long time. Outside of mailing lists, how many other places do you get to see comments from Miguel explaining in near-real time his company's software / plans? I think that's pretty cool.
And as a last resort, you can also choose not to see the stories in categories where software might be announced or talked about; just go to your user preferences. I'm personally glad to see this announcement here (just logged in after 4 hours of driving), but tastes differ violently. If we had a "sports" section, I'd probably block that ;)
Cheers,
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Munitions regulations forbid exporting this software to Kansas.
Tip: if Evolution seems to load up really slowly then you probably need to restart your oaf server. Just run killev followed by oaf-slay and Presto. Or else follow the windows approach and wait for your next reboot :)
Screenshot: check out the funky new (and configurable) summary page!
I'm looking in the "Ximian Preview" channel in Red Carpet, and all I see is version 0.11-ximian.2. Is this the beta of 1.0? (It would help if there were dates listed with the items, but there don't appear to be, at least not that I can find.)
Can anybody point me at the right thing to download if this isn't it? I'm dying to see this thing. Thanks.
TomatoMan
-- http://frobnosticate.com
The problem isn't with KDE/QT isn't the fact that QT is not LGPL'd. The problem is that it used to have a source-under-glass license and the KDE camp didn't care.
Don't get me wrong - I like theKompany. Any company that released any software GPL'd is doing something right. They certainly do 'get it' more than most other companies. I just happen to believe that it's fundamentally wrong to sell closed-source software. It's nice that they're contributing to the community and all, and hey - we're not forced to use their proprietary plugins/stencils. In fact, we're free to make our own using their Open technology. But it's still wrong to write closed software:P
I've heard all the arguments about software not being politics before, and don't care to get into it here. Regardless of what the nay-sayers spout, I won't be adding non-free to my sources.list anytime soon.
signature smigmature
- James
I have no problem with selling software. Just with closed software. There is a difference.
signature smigmature
- James
I'm a big evolution supporter. Have always liked it. I like the fact that the entirety of the program is GPL'ed (Unlike certain products from certain nameless others.
But it's a little bit discouraging when you install the binaries through red-carpet, rm -rf your existing ~/evolution directory, run oaf-slay, start evolution and then find that it crashed consistently if you try to open the 'Welcome to Evolution' email.
I'll go file a bug report now... - James
signature smigmature
- James
...but I just finished hunting down and killing all of the errant ximian packages on my debian testing install. My system has never run more smoothly--even Nautilus is zippy since I moved to a consistent distribution. I'm not going to let that happen again, and I just tried dpkging the available .deb but it wanted to overwrite libcamel0. I guess I'll wait for it to magically appear as an official .deb.
I've been a long time Mutt user (and Pine before that) so I was pretty excited about trying out Evolution. I've heard some pretty rave reviews and decided to give it a spin, thinking I may be convinced to take the GUI mail client plunge. Beta 1 was completely stable for me, but I really didn't see what was so impressive about the thing. To be totally honest, it looks and feels very much like an Outlook clone. It certainly has all of the latest wizbang features, but I honestly had expected a better, more innovative interface from the folks at Ximian.
All in all, it's a very solid, feature-complete client. Especially for those with Outlook envy. But I think the GTK/GNOME community could do (and would like) something a bit more original. But hey, it's certainly a lot better than the Netscape mail client!
until then, i'm stickin to good old Pine
--
Screw 3...
I seem to have expressed the incorrect opinion once again. How can I make amends? Ah! Of course:
With this new release of unstoppable GNU/Linux software, Linux will surely replace Windows on the desktop. The unparalleled brilliance of the Open Source development methodology has produced another example of robust software superior in every way to the primitive and poorly written Micro$loth versions. I know we've been saying this for the last four years, but every time this happens, I feel more certain that within the next four years, Linux will rule the desktop market.
Denial isn't just a river in Italy
It still strikes me as a very silly idea. A large part of the point of OO is supposed to be encapsulation. When working on a huge application, it is counter-productive to bombard a programmer with information. While C does give you a better idea of what's going on, it's dubious as to whether or not this is particularly useful when coding desktop apps. The argument could be made that you could use asm, and get a real good idea of what is going on.
The point of coding in languages like C++ is that the programmer sacrifices some control over his code in order to make coding faster and project management easier. Additionally, there are considerable advantages to sensible use of things like templates and the STL.
Frankly, I consider Sun's adoption of Gnome to be a kiss-of-death. They seem to have a history of adopting UIs and watching them crash and burn.
Denial isn't just a river in Italy