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Evolution 1.0 Released
jdavidb writes: "I pulled up the Ximian redcarpet updater this morning and discovered that Evolution 1.0 is finally available! Now Outlook can start facing some serious competition, although there's still a long way to go. (Evolution does not yet emulate all the Outlook viruses, of course, nor does it integrate with Exchange Server.)" Here's Ximian's full announcement. Update: 12/03 14:59 GMT by T : Nat Friedman of Ximian points out that they're offering a software extension which does allow integration with Exchange 2000. There's good story on the new iteration of Evolution at NewsForge, too.
See press release at Ximian's site. Available early next at $69 a pop.
>Now Outlook can start facing some serious >competition, although there's still a long way to >go. (Evolution does not yet emulate all the >Outlook viruses, of course, nor does it integrate >with Exchange Server.)
A better way of putting this is "does not COMPLETELY integrate with Exchange Server". I'm running it with my company's Exchange servers, via IMAP, LDAP, and SMTP, and the only thing not working is Calendar and shared TODO.
Otherwise, download the binaries or source code.
I'd figure that Lotus Notes would be a *no brainer* for Linux considering their backing of the platform. Does anyone know what is holding them back? Are they just trying to shoot themselves in the foot or what?
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I like Evolution... really, I do. Except, I can't use it. We use Exchange at work, and there's nothing I can do to make Evolution work.
I think Ev v1 was roadmapped to integrate with Exchange -- since it doesn't it's not a viable option for corporates who primarily use Windows, but have people using Unix.
But, Exchange is not the be-all and end-all, tight integration with Lotus Domino would be excellent. Lots of big corporations use Notes heavily, and require a Windows client (Domino web services aren't great)
Perhaps an open standard for groupware (discussion, IM, calendar, to-do etc.) could be adopted, and through that Exchange/Notes -> new standard could be employed, aloowing other people to bring integration with whatever groupware server they want to Evolution and other clients?
Could be a very bad idea, but it's just off the top of my head!
Dave
Its nice, but I can't figure where they say its groupware. Currently, its a PIM. But, for some odd reason, there not intrested in intergrating it into a groupware application via XML-RPC or SOAP. If that where true, then they could start plugging into phpGroupWare. I have about 20 people a week asking me if I could ask them to do it, so I simply tell them to email there developers instead. Needless to say, nothing has come about.
Also, we actually have a client side application for Linux and Windows that is working. (Buggy, but works) Its still under heavy development, but it pretty easy to plug into. A more portable version is in the works.
Anyway, so people would stop asking me about it, please, email there development team and ask them to talk to the phpGroupWare guys about creating an XML-RPC or SOAP interface. I think these 2 projects would go hand and hand nicely.
So, for those complaining about the lack of an "exchange server" enviroment, something is there, just not being used.
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An exchange connector is a library with a familiar interface that will handle all connections with the exchange server. Now, this Exchange connector for Evolution is not GPL-ed software but proprietry closed source software. Because afaik in memory linking is also prohibited, how is Ximian going to solve any GPL conflicts? Or is the GPL not able to force its license on the connector?
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Yeah, but as long as no one is under any impressions that Ximian actually have anything to do with opensource.
Ah... Maybe I'm venting, I've been watching evolution for soooooo long now and all the reports have seemed to imply that they where not interested in exchange because of closed protocol.
Seems to me of course is that they where stopping anyone from "scratching that itch" Opensource style.
Pffft. They can stick it where the sun don't shine. I'm gonna crack out that python and roll my own.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
I use PINE for my Exchange integration Email work. Works perfectly - apparently PINE is as much integrated with Exchange as Evolution is, until they start selling their component that'll connect to the calendar.
The calendar is the only reason I keep Outlook around, really.
My real problem with Evolution is, it looks like Outlook. I cannot use Outlook for Email. I find the interface to be completely horrible, unintuitive and hard to keep organized. The whole "Rules" thing just does not work. With PINE, if you want to save a message to a different mailbox, you hit "S <ENTER>". With Outlook you have to Drag'n'Drop. Imagine that for 200 messages.
Maybe it's because I've been using PINE for god-knows how long, but GUI mail clients just don't work for me.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
I'm not trying to troll here, but I have strong doubts that Ximian will survive. But, before I continue, let me congratulate them on Evolution, as it is a very high quality product, and my preferred mail client.
From the newsforge article, quotes from Nat Friedman, vice president of product development:
"We expect less than we would have expected awhile ago. I think that people understand that businesses have to survive. And the people know that the bloody carcasses of Open Source companies line the horizon right now."
and
"It is proprietary is because they (Ximian) intend to make money from it."
Effectively what I see here is an admission that open source software just isn't getting the bills paid (at least for Ximian, and Eazel RIP), and that they need to sell proprietry software in order to keep afloat.
Unless we see open source companies like ximian generate significantly more revenue from services related to their open source projects, we just aren't gonna have the pleasure of using new products from them for much longer.
Close on the heels of this development, Microsoft announced that its software would be fully in compliance with all laws concerning munitions exports and creationism.
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Using Evolution with Exchange is going to cost a company more than using Outlook. When deploying Exchange you buy a server license, either standard or enterprise, and then you buy client licenses for each user. Along with that license you also get an Outlook license.
If we wanted to move to Evolution we'd still have to pay the same amount, and then have to pay for the Exchange connector on top of it. The price just went up $70/user to move to Evolution. I can't seem to locate my quote for our Exchange migration here, but a quick check shows a 5 user client access pack for Exchange is about $350...so the price per user just doubled.
I'll pay it... I've been waiting for this since Evolution was first announced. Every LinuxWorld I ask them about Exchange support so it's nice to see it coming soon. But, it will be harder for someone else to do a mass migration.
Something to consider.... I hope it works for them. I see Ximian as a company that needs to stick around for the Linux desktop to really take off.
(Before flaming, please note that I seriously don't know the answer to this question)
Isn't Ximian done by Miguel de Icaza?
(Below this is trolling/flamebait/whatever)
Isn't he the guy who started Gnome because he was pissed off at the proprietary nature of KDE/QT? How do we reconcile the two? Oh, because Miguel sees proprietary as okay if Miguel gets the money?
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
I repeat it since I have points and the mods aren't bothering to read at 0 today:
The plugin runs as a component, not a library, so the communication is via a CORBA interface. Since no linking occurs (merely CORBA communication) there is no GPL violation, nor any need to re-license.
IAAL,BIANLY