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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?"
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've been following evolution for a long time now.. Early version pre 1.0 were unstable. However, in true unix fashion the post 1.0 versions have had excellent stability.
I've been using it exclusively for more than a year and I would never switch back to netscape mail or mozilla mail at this point. Evolution is much faster on my 600Mhz system, and it looks beautiful. It has a rich set of features, an excellent IMAP implementation, innovative stuff like the VFolders, ability to block external images in html mail, palm synchronization, gpg support... I know this is a little too glowing but I can't say enough about how happy I am with this software.
Evolution and Galeon together provide such a good internet experience that I've been been able to get at least 3 people to switch to Linux.on their merits alone. A coworker just bought an iBook and while she loves OSX she complains all the time that the default browser isn't as good as galeon and the default mailer isn't as nice as evolution.
I have to say, if you'd join the evo mailing
i on
list, you'd be very up to date on what problems
people are having.
Note that I have no experience with the connector
portion, as I convinced my corporate masters
long ago that Exchange was a tool of the devil
[;)], but the most common issues I see on the
list are:
1) lack of inline pgp/gpg support
2) spell check problems
3) inability to mail calendar items (which may or
may not be solved by Connector).
http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/evolut
In all, I don't think I could *ever* go back to netscape or mozilla for mail. When I finally can ditch windows at the office, I expect the app that lets me get away with it will be Evolution.
i do this very thing at work ... i've got all my messages (over 6000 and growing daily) in one massive mailbox, which makes it easy to scroll through in pine, from wherever i am in the company ... and i have evolution, on my desktop, set up to point to the same IMAP account, and do virtual-folder sorting ... that way all my mail is nice and sorted when i'm in the pretty gui that makes it easy to navigate, and all my mail in a nice single list when i'm in a low-bandwidth text session (ie, pine) ...
i love evolution, and wish there were a windows version so i could switch to it at home, too
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