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Ximian Evolution User Experiences?
An Anonymous Crawdad asks: "My workplace is a mixture of Windows and Linux users, but we use Exchange as our email server for the groupware features. For the Linux users this makes it necessary to have a second Windows box just for email. I'm curious as to how well the Ximian's Evolution and Connector works with the Exchange server since it has been out for a little while and reviews on the net are a little lacking. I don't think there is a "try before you buy" option. My general belief is that 1.0 releases are never worth buying, but how much hope should I have for the future?"
Works very well; calendaring supported. IMAP support is good, too. GnuPG integration works (basic, signing, verifying, no real key management); LDAP directory lookups work well, smart .sig based upon selected sending account, Palm sync works.
It's a damned good mailer.
As a note, it only works with Exchange 2000. Check what version you are running... if you are using an older version of exchange, then it won't do you any good. We talked to them a few months ago, and they said they weren't planning on doing ports to older versions of exchange, so...
I currently use Evolution 1.0.7 in an Exchange 2000 environment but, without the connector. I user POP & SMTP to talk with Exchange. Comparing it to Outlook 2000 I would say that it is very good overall. But there are a few "rough edges".
;)
Speed is the first issue. Performing the various daily functions is noticably slower than with Outlook on the same machine. Opening a message or sending a message all take a moment longer than Outlook, which seems to snap right to it. The sluggishness is livable but, it is noticable too.
The second is probably a matter of taste. I use Evolution with KDE 3 and the Evolution colors are all gray washouts. This isn't too bad at first but, it does cause the interface to lack contrast which I find tiring after a while. I haven't found a way to change the colors but, it is probably possible. Perhaps, through the GDM configuration but, that's more trouble than it's worth.
The only other possible issue I have is with an over abundance of menu options that don't seem to offer any real value. I still haven't figured out what the difference is between "Empty Trash" and "Expunge". Are they both necessary?
Other than that, I think Evolution is VERY comparable to Outlook. I love some of the features that it has that Outlook lacks. For instance the ability to view HTML formatted mail but not download embedded images off the net. This means no more dot clear images tracking the message and no auto-run scripts doing dirty deeds.
VFolders, a method of storing searches in a folder view format, are very nice. I must confess though, I don't use it much. I only have 5 VFolders configured.
Calendaring and contact management is great too, though I can't speak for Exchange interoperability with the Calendar, I feel confident based on Evolution that the connector would be good too.
As a whole I strongly recommend Evolution. It is an Outlook killer. Unfortunately though, it doesn't forward Melissa, Code-Red, Anna Kourikova, I Love You.....
I have Evolution 1.0.7 running on my Gentoo box for about 14 hours staight each day. I've don't remember having any problems with it crashing since I updated to this version. It could be your config files. Mine were copied over from an older installation an another computer.
Other then email, I don't really use evolutions features. They were something that I thought I would try out in the beginning, but they aren't something that's very usefull to me at this time.
Robbie
emerge evolution --emptytree
Sure, it'll take a day and a half, but your Evolution install will likely improve. I'm having no problems on my Gentoo box with Evolution 1.0.7
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. -- William James
We have a few Linux users (and more, all being well) on the desktop ,with Exchange 5.5 as the company's internal mail server. This actually recludes us using Connector, as it's only available for 2000.
;-) (Will be nice when someone writes a free backend calendar server for Evo though - will make it easier for us to propse a wholesale movement away from Exchange)
,and trivial to copy/paste into an appointment in your own calendar.
We have no problems, we use IMAP & SMTP for mail, we can access the directry using LDAP, the only thing we can't access is shared calendaring, but we don't care about that
When we schedule meetings, Outlook users can happily see & use the appointment dobries sent to them in iCal format, although when they do the same to use, Outlook doesn't send them in the right format, so the information just appears as the body of the mail, it's readable though
It even handles mails sent in that annoying TNEF format of Outlook's, provided you have an up-to-date version of WINE or gtnef (See bug #232)
Listening for the sound of the coming rain...