Evolution (software)
 Evolution's e-mail client |
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| Original author(s) | Ximian |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | The GNOME Project |
| Initial release | 10 May 2000[1] |
| Stable release | 3.8.2 (May 16, 2013) [±][2] |
| Development status | Active |
| Written in | C (GTK+) |
| Operating system | Linux |
| Available in | 53 languages with more than 80% translation[3] |
| Type | Personal information manager |
| License | GNU General Public License |
| Website | projects.gnome.org/evolution |
Evolution (formerly Novell Evolution and Ximian Evolution, prior to Novell's 2003 acquisition of Ximian) is the official personal information manager for GNOME. It has been an official part of GNOME since Evolution 2.0 was included with the GNOME 2.8 release in September 2004.[4] It combines e-mail, address book, calendar, task list and note-taking features. Its user interface and functionality is similar to Microsoft Outlook. Evolution is free software licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Contents |
Features [edit]
Evolution delivers the following features:[5]
- E-mail retrieval with the POP and IMAP protocols and e-mail transmission with SMTP.
- Secure network connections encrypted with SSL, TLS and STARTTLS.
- E-mail encryption with GPG and S/MIME.
- E-mail filters.
- Search folders, saved searches that look like normal mail folders as an alternative to using filters and search queries.
- Automatic spam filtering with SpamAssassin and Bogofilter.
- Connectivity to Microsoft Exchange Server, Novell GroupWise and Kolab[6] (provided in separate packages as plug-ins).
- Calendar support for the iCalendar file format, the WebDAV and CalDAV standards and Google Calendar.
- Contact management with local address books, LDAP and Google address books.
- Synchronization via SyncML with SyncEvolution and with Palm OS devices via gnome-pilot.
- Evolution's address books can be used as a data source in LibreOffice.
- An RSS reader plug-in.[7]
The Novell GroupWise plug-in is no longer in active development.[8] A Scalix plug-in[9] is also available, but its development stopped in 2009.[10]
Connecting to Microsoft Exchange Server [edit]
Depending on which version of Microsoft Exchange Server is used, different packages need to be installed to be able to connect to it. The documentation recommends the evolution-ews package (which uses Exchange Web Services) for Exchange Server 2007, 2010 and newer. If evolution-ews does not work well, it is advised to try the evolution-mapi package. This supports Exchange Server 2010, 2007 and possibly older versions supporting MAPI. For Exchange Server 2003, 2000 and possibly earlier versions supporting Outlook Web App the package evolution-exchange is recommended.[11]
History [edit]
Ximian decided to develop Evolution in 2000. It felt there were no e-mail clients for Linux at the time which could provide the functionality and interoperability necessary for corporate users. Ximian saw an opportunity for Linux to penetrate the corporate environment if the right business software was available for it. It released Evolution 1.0 in December 2001 and offered the paid Ximian Connector plug-in which allowed users to connect with Microsoft Exchange Server. Evolution itself has been free software from the start, but Ximian Connector was sold as proprietary software so that Ximian could generate revenue.[12] This changed after Novell's acquisition of Ximian in August 2003. Novell decided to integrate the Exchange plug-in as free software in Evolution 2.0 in May 2004.[13]
Novell was in turn acquired by The Attachmate Group in 2011. It transferred Novell's former Evolution developers to its subsidiary SUSE. In 2012 SUSE decided to stop its funding of Evolution's development and assigned its developers elsewhere. As a consequence only two full time developers employed by Red Hat remain.[8]
Distribution [edit]
As a part of GNOME Evolution is released as source code. Linux distributions provide packages of GNOME for end-users. Evolution is used as the default personal information manager on several Linux distributions which use GNOME by default, most notably Debian and Fedora. Ubuntu has replaced Evolution with Mozilla Thunderbird as the default e-mail client since version 11.10, Oneiric Ocelot.[14]
Defunct Mac OS X and Windows ports [edit]
In the past Evolution was ported to Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, but these ports are no longer developed.
In 2006 Novell released an installer for Evolution 2.6 on Mac OS X. At this time the download link no longer works.[15] In January 2005, Novell's Nat Friedman announced in his blog[16] that the company had hired Tor Lillqvist, the programmer who ported GIMP to Microsoft Windows, to do the same with Evolution. Before this announcement several projects with the same goal had been started but none of them reached alpha status. In 2008 DIP Consultants released a Windows installer for Evolution 2.28.1-1 for Windows XP and newer.[17] Currently it is not available for download anymore.
A slightly more recent experimental installer for Evolution 3.0.2 is provided by openSUSE.[18][19] Users have faced difficulties getting this version working.[20]
See also [edit]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Evolution (software) |
- List of personal information managers
- List of applications with iCalendar support
- Comparison of e-mail clients
References [edit]
- ^ Icaza, Miguel de (10 May 2000). "Evolution "Prokaryote" 0.0 has been released". evolution-hackers mailing list. GNOME. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
- ^ Peters, Frederic (2013-05-16), "GNOME 3.8.2 Release", gnome-announce mailing list, retrieved 2013-05-17
- ^ "Module Statistics: evolution". Damned Lies. GNOME. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
- ^ Cumming, Murray; Charles, Colin; Madeley, Davyd (15 September 2004). "GNOME 2.8 Release Notes". GNOME. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
- ^ "Evolution Mail and Calendar documentation". GNOME Library. GNOME. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
- ^ "Evolution/Kolab". GNOME Live. GNOME. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ "Evolution RSS Reader Plugin". Evolution plugins. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ a b Barnes, Matthew (19 September 2012). "What's New in Evolution 3.6". evolution-list mailing list. GNOME. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ "Scalix Connect for Evolution". Xandros Corporation. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ "Git log of evolution-scalix". GNOME Git. GNOME. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ "Choosing the right connector". GNOME Library. GNOME. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ Barr, Joe (3 December 2001). "Ximian Evolution 1.0 links Linux to Exchange". The Register. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ "Novell Announces Evolution 2.0 and Release of Connector for Microsoft Exchange Server Under Open Source License". Novell. 11 May 2004. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ "Oneiric Ocelot Release Notes". Ubuntu Wiki. Ubuntu. 12 March 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
- ^ "Evolution 2.6 for Mac OS X". Novell. Archived from the original
|archiveurl=requires|url=(help) on 28 May 2007. Retrieved 26 January 2013. - ^ Friedman, Nat (17 January 2005). "Evolution for Windows". Nat Friedman's Blog. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
- ^ "Evolution for Windows". DIP Consultants. Archived from the original
|archiveurl=requires|url=(help) on 19 December 2009. Retrieved 26 January 2013. - ^ Strba, Fridrich (25 May 2010). "Experimental Evolution installer for Windows". Retrieved 26 January 2013.
- ^ "Experimental Evolution 3.0.2 packages for Windows". openSUSE. 28 August 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
- ^ "windows Evolution doesn't start: libglade*/libgdk*/libg*.dll missing". GNOME Bugzilla. GNOME. 21 September 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
External links [edit]
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