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Linux Desktop Email Key to Success
littlepill writes "It looks as though email clients are vital for Linux to succeed in the desktop battle. ZDNet says, "the lack of a powerful email application could hinder the adoption of Linux on the desktop". So, even though Novell's Evolution is one viable and valid product, it seems that there is a clear "message to application vendors to focus on developing a quality email application for the Linux desktop"." I'm unconvinced- I think webmail will soon be replacing client side readers for all but power users.
was mozilla thunderbird completely overlooked in this FUD-filled article?
I second the webmail thing. Before I quit my last windows-dominated job (to try my hand at this full-time), it was common for me to use the IE-based Outlook Web Access client since Outlook itself was often buggier.
But Evolution is weak when it comes to Exchange connectivity. It connects using the Ximian Exchange connector, which emulates a web browser against OWA. Not only that, Novell shipped an extremely broken build of Evolution and the Exchange connector with SuSE 10 and has yet to offer a fix that works consistently.
Even when Evolution is working fine, it's dog-slow against Exchange, contacts are weak, public folder support is weak (if one creates a task folder or calendar folder in public folder, it's not recognized as such), and, well. . . it's the best option one has in Linux for Exchange interoperability, with the possible exception of wine/M$ Office.
With that said, if only Novell would fix Evolution and shove an update to the broken packages (Evolution, the connector, and libsoup) I'll be happy, even with the slow performance and poor public folder support.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Tor Lillqvist is porting gtk/etc code to windows, been doing it for most of the year from what I know. You can read his blog here
http://tml-blog.blogspot.com/
He speaks of running evolution on windows in the 3rd or 4th blog entry.
I don't have to visit an Exchange shop. I make my living cleaning up after Exchange catastrophes when administrators and CTOs come to their senses and decide they want a real email solution and need to migrate from their Exchange server nightmares to something more appropriate.
Seriously - if I worked for a company whos IT department might try and force Exchagne on me - I'd quit. Period. Fortunately, we don't run MS operating systems or applications of any kind and actually aren't allowed to outside of certain constrained parameters, so I don't ever have to worry about that.
But hey, if you want a coffee maker that washes your car and makes toast too - go for it. I'd rather have separate tools that make really good coffee and really good toast than a half-assed everything.