Evolution (software)

Evolution

Evolution's e-mail client Evolution's calendar software
Developer(s)	Novell & GNOME
Stable release	3.2.1  (October 17, 2011; 27 days ago (2011-10-17))
Operating system	Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
Type	Personal information manager
License	Evolution: GNU General Public License, Anjal: GNU Lesser General Public License v2 or v3
Website	projects.gnome.org/evolution

Evolution or Novell Evolution (formerly Ximian Evolution, prior to Novell's 2003 acquisition of Ximian) is the official personal information manager and workgroup information management tool for GNOME. It combines e-mail, calendar, address book, and task list management functions. It has been an official part of GNOME since version 2.8 in September 2004. Evolution development is sponsored primarily by Novell.

Its user interface and functionality are similar to Microsoft Outlook. Features include iCalendar support, full-text indexing of all incoming mail, powerful email filters writable in Scheme,^[1] and a “Search Folders” feature (i.e., saved searches that look like normal mail folders).

Evolution can be connected to older versions of Microsoft Exchange Server (i.e. not Exchange 2007 and 2010; partial work arounds are available for these versions) using their web interfaces and an Evolution add-on formerly called Ximian Connector. Using gnome-pilot, it may be synchronized with Palm Pilot devices, and OpenSync enables it to be synchronized with mobile phones and other PDAs.

Licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Evolution is free software.

Evolution 2

Evolution 2, which has been available since September 2004, delivers these features:^{[citation needed]}

• integrated connectivity to Novell GroupWise
• integrated connectivity to Microsoft Exchange Server
• integrated support for GPG email encryption
• improved offline support for IMAP accounts
• numerous calendar improvements
• support for S/MIME, enhanced contact management
• Pidgin instant messaging integration
• improved desktop integration
• improved compliance with GNOME's human interface guidelines
• integrated SpamAssassin functionality (with user-defined spam score and whitelist rules in ~/.spamassassin/)
• a connector for Scalix is available

Evolution Express

Evolution Express^[2] is a new user interface which is being built on top of Evolution, targeted for mobile and small-screen devices. It is included as part of Evolution 2.30 and can be enabled by passing the --express command-line option.

Distribution

Evolution is released as part of GNOME. GNOME is the default desktop environment for several Linux distributions, most notably Debian, Fedora and Ubuntu prior to version 11.04^[3]. Foresight Linux showcases the latest releases of GNOME. Novell distributes Evolution with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and the openSUSE community project.

Evolution is also available as source code. Some pre-built install packages are available for other operating systems, but only for older versions.

Evolution for Mac OS X

In 2006, Novell provided an installer for Evolution on Mac OS X. This outdated version was downloadable for quite a while but the link no longer works.^[4][5]

Evolution for Windows

In January 2005, Novell's Nat Friedman announced in his blog^[6] 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.

As of November 11, 2009, DIP Consultants, LLC provides Evolution 2.28.2-1 with Windows Installer,^[7] which runs on Windows XP and newer.

An experimental installer for Evolution 2.32 also exists for Windows. ^[8]

See also

Free software portal

• List of personal information managers
• List of applications with iCalendar support
• Comparison of e-mail clients
• SyncEvolution
• Microsoft Outlook
• Kontact
• iCal
• Address Book
• Windows Calendar
• Windows Contacts
• Windows Live Mail
• Mozilla Thunderbird

References

1. ^ "Getting Really Organized with vFolders". Ximian, Inc.. http://www.gnome.org/projects/evolution/doc/x2279.html. Retrieved 21 August 2007. 
2. ^ Evolution Express for MeeGo
3. ^ http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes
4. ^ Forge.novell.com at the Wayback Machine (archived May 28, 2007)
5. ^ Evolution FAQ: Does a version for Apple Mac OS exist?
6. ^ Nat Friedman (2005-01-17). "Evolution for Windows". Nat Friedman' Blog. http://nat.org/blog/2005/01/17-january-2005/. Retrieved 2010-02-17. 
7. ^ "Evolution for Windows". http://www.dipconsultants.com/evolution/. Retrieved 2011-05-31. 
8. ^ "Experimental Evolution installer for Windows". http://fridrich.blogspot.com/2010/05/experimental-evolution-installer-for.html. Retrieved 2010-05-25. 

External links

• Official Evolution project page, gnome.org
• openSUSE Evolution page, opensuse.org
• Evolution on Win32, dipconsultants.com