Novell ports Evolution to Windows

Evolution was developed by open-source company Ximian, which was acquired by Novell in August 2003. It's widely seen as a possible threat to Outlook due to its ability to integrate well with Microsoft's Exchange server.

Tor Lillqvist, Novell senior software engineer, revealed the latest development in his blog posting yesterday. He is realistic about Evolution's current capabilities, saying it crashes immediately after launching. However, the application's ability to run on Windows means serious debugging work can begin, he added.

Lillqvist is part of an open-source project that aims to bring Evolution -- which encompasses e-mail, calendaring tasks and contact management -- to the Windows platform.

In an earlier blog, he laid out the Evolution-on-Windows development path drawn from his speech at a recent open source GNOME desktop conference in Germany.

According to Lillqvist, since Evolution depends on various software libraries from GNOME, porting is more difficult compared with other efforts such as the GIMP -- an image editor similar to Adobe Photoshop -- that only utilised core GIMP Toolkit (GTK) libraries on which GNOME depends.

Lillqvist said he will attempt to fix the base functionality of the application and refine it later.

He warned interested parties to keep at arm's length from the software development effort for the time being, adding: "You cannot run Evolution on Windows yet ... there isn't anything for end-users to beta-test yet."

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My first reaction upon reading this was the following: "Given the ease of use of today's GNU/Linux systems, I just don't see the point. Any outfit that buys computers already has MS Windows (and usually some version of MS Office) pre-insAnonymous -- 09/06/05

My first reaction upon reading this was the following:

"Given the ease of use of today's GNU/Linux systems, I just don't see the point. Any outfit that buys computers already has MS Windows (and usually some version of MS Office) pre-installed on it. Outlook (Lookout?) is included in all versions of MS Office."

Upon further reflection, though, I think it is a good idea, for the same reasons that the GIMP, OpenOffice.org, and the Mozilla products were ported to Win32. If we can give them something that looks "just like Outlook," then there's no longer a reason to purchase MS Office (there is already an FOSS app that reads MS Access databases). I think it will help us to transition folks to Free platforms.

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Now... if they had use KDE it probably would have been a lot easier to get to a runnable situationAnonymous -- 09/06/05

Now... if they had use KDE it probably would have been a lot easier to get to a runnable situation

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This is a great first step. Evolution is a great product and the ability to run in on Windows will give IT department the option to support a single product while still having the flexibility to choose between Windows and Linux based on the needs of theiAnonymous -- 09/06/05

This is a great first step. Evolution is a great product and the ability to run in on Windows will give IT department the option to support a single product while still having the flexibility to choose between Windows and Linux based on the needs of their staff.

Evloution will complete the stack of software that most office workers needs (along with OpenOffice.org and Firefox) allowing IT departments to deploy a standard application base while still having the freedom to control other factors based on the needs of the company, and the individuals within the company.

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excellent another outlook express level client. Stick with POP3 or IMAP clients if you can't get a propoer outlook client. The experience will at least be expected rather than less than expected. I have tried it on SUSE and had many issues with Anonymous -- 09/06/05

excellent another outlook express level client. Stick with POP3 or IMAP clients if you can't get a propoer outlook client. The experience will at least be expected rather than less than expected.

I have tried it on SUSE and had many issues with the Exchange connectors and a lack of true connectivity capability

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Evolution doesn't integrate well with Exchange, the exchange connector is extremely buggy and ultimately I think the odds are piled against there ever being a really successful connector. Evolution itself isn't particularly stable and has in parAnonymous -- 10/06/05

Evolution doesn't integrate well with Exchange, the exchange connector is extremely buggy and ultimately I think the odds are piled against there ever being a really successful connector.

Evolution itself isn't particularly stable and has in particular a number of performance issues. Compare it as an IMAP client against Thunderbird (the answer from the Evolution developers will be - the IMAP4 connector is a lot faster - but you may not have an IMAP4 capable mailserver).

To my mind the evolution team would be better focused making evolution a rock solid application on Linux (which it isn't) rather than introduce an unstable version to a wider audience.

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hi, what i know about linux and open source is quite devistating, yet from what i have hered it is fantastic. i just wish there was a site for dummies like myself to explain everything word for word. and yes i do understand your home page so thaAnonymous -- 20/06/05

hi,

what i know about linux and open source is quite devistating, yet from what i have hered it is fantastic. i just wish there was a site for dummies like myself to explain everything word for word. and yes i do understand your home page so thanks for the symplicity on explaining what Evelution is all about.

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