I can only speak about Evolution, because I'm playing around with that at the moment. Maybe someone else can do something like this for Kontact.
1) I don't see Notes or Journal options in Evo.
I think you're right here, it doesn't have any.
2) I see no evidence that Evo or Kontact let you group your folder items by from/date/sender/subject/etc.
Evolution supports virtual folders that can do this.
3) Can you automatically format items based on rules? What if I want emails from my boss to show up in red?
Yes, just create a new filter rule, filter for your boss being the sender, and as the action to perform select "assign color".
4) Is there a rules manager so I can also automatically do things with incoming emails? Delete them, send a reply, file in a folder, etc?
Yes.
5) I don't see that you can just straight to a contact from anywhere in the program by typing their partial name in the toolbar.
Correct.
6) I'm sure Kontact has HTML email editing, I just don't see the toolbar buttons.
As I've said before, I can't speak about Kontact. Evolution has those buttons, but I don't know anyone who'd want to receive HTML email...
7) Contacts don't appear to let you add your own fields (corporate users love this!). Nor do I see a gigantic Notes field or support for Journaling.
You're right, this neat feature is missing. There's a "notes" field, though, but it's well hidden on the bottom of the "Personal Information" tab.
8) I cannot tell if, in Calendar, you can configure the times to display multiple time zones when you are travelling.
Correct, Evolution supports only one time zone at a time.
9) It does not look like you can assign colorful labels to your Calendar events. This feature is priceless!
Correct. This feature is missing. Makes me wonder why, since it should be easy to implement...
10) Do the other programs let you view multiple Calendars (like that of another user) side-by-side?
Yes.
11) Can you schedule appointments with other users at all? If you can, I don't see the field to do it, and I certainly don't see how you can see their schedule.
You can certainly do it. I've never used this feature, as I use Evolution only at home.
12) The implementation of Recurrening Appointments on Evo would drive business people insane.
I Agree with you, the implementation is somewhat lacking. E.g. you can only define exceptions on a per-day basis, which is really annoying.
13) It doesn't look like Evo has enough fields to support a proper ToDo list. I don't even see a Due Date field.
Of course it has a due date field, and a start date field, too, and plenty of others. Which other fields are you missing?
14) Can you assign Tasks to other users? Get progress reports?
I think so. A comment field in the status tab might come in handy, there's only a status, percentage completed, and priority. But you can enter a link to a website and (ab-)use that for additional comments.
15) None of the screenshots demonstrate how configurable either program is. Sure, you can edit the source, but I'm talking about the Average User. Outlook is right-click customizable like crazy.
You can't customize very much in Evolution. It's a gnome program after all, and as we all know the gnome people don't believe in customizability of every tiny aspect, but concentrate on usability out of the box.
Maybe these things are not missing, but I couldn't see them from the screenshots.
I think we all agree that screenshots alone are not a good means for comparing programs. They give far too little information. If that was your point, you could have said that in less words. And if you wanted to tell us how far superior Outlook is, you should have done at least some research about the alternatives. While I agree that there are still many features missing, you were wrong on a substancial number...
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1) I don't see Notes or Journal options in Evo.
I think you're right here, it doesn't have any.
2) I see no evidence that Evo or Kontact let you group your folder items by from/date/sender/subject/etc.
Evolution supports virtual folders that can do this.
3) Can you automatically format items based on rules? What if I want emails from my boss to show up in red?
Yes, just create a new filter rule, filter for your boss being the sender, and as the action to perform select "assign color".
4) Is there a rules manager so I can also automatically do things with incoming emails? Delete them, send a reply, file in a folder, etc?
Yes.
5) I don't see that you can just straight to a contact from anywhere in the program by typing their partial name in the toolbar.
Correct.
6) I'm sure Kontact has HTML email editing, I just don't see the toolbar buttons.
As I've said before, I can't speak about Kontact. Evolution has those buttons, but I don't know anyone who'd want to receive HTML email...
7) Contacts don't appear to let you add your own fields (corporate users love this!). Nor do I see a gigantic Notes field or support for Journaling.
You're right, this neat feature is missing. There's a "notes" field, though, but it's well hidden on the bottom of the "Personal Information" tab.
8) I cannot tell if, in Calendar, you can configure the times to display multiple time zones when you are travelling.
Correct, Evolution supports only one time zone at a time.
9) It does not look like you can assign colorful labels to your Calendar events. This feature is priceless!
Correct. This feature is missing. Makes me wonder why, since it should be easy to implement...
10) Do the other programs let you view multiple Calendars (like that of another user) side-by-side?
Yes.
11) Can you schedule appointments with other users at all? If you can, I don't see the field to do it, and I certainly don't see how you can see their schedule.
You can certainly do it. I've never used this feature, as I use Evolution only at home.
12) The implementation of Recurrening Appointments on Evo would drive business people insane.
I Agree with you, the implementation is somewhat lacking. E.g. you can only define exceptions on a per-day basis, which is really annoying.
13) It doesn't look like Evo has enough fields to support a proper ToDo list. I don't even see a Due Date field.
Of course it has a due date field, and a start date field, too, and plenty of others. Which other fields are you missing?
14) Can you assign Tasks to other users? Get progress reports?
I think so. A comment field in the status tab might come in handy, there's only a status, percentage completed, and priority. But you can enter a link to a website and (ab-)use that for additional comments.
15) None of the screenshots demonstrate how configurable either program is. Sure, you can edit the source, but I'm talking about the Average User. Outlook is right-click customizable like crazy.
You can't customize very much in Evolution. It's a gnome program after all, and as we all know the gnome people don't believe in customizability of every tiny aspect, but concentrate on usability out of the box.
Maybe these things are not missing, but I couldn't see them from the screenshots.
I think we all agree that screenshots alone are not a good means for comparing programs. They give far too little information.
If that was your point, you could have said that in less words. And if you wanted to tell us how far superior Outlook is, you should have done at least some research about the alternatives. While I agree that there are still many features missing, you were wrong on a substancial number...