The beginning of the end…

Last Updated on September 30, 2010 by Dave Farquhar

I meant to post this last night. I didn’t. Oh well.
It’s the beginning of the end, one can only hope. Yesterday, Ximian released Evolution 1.0, the long-awaited Outlook workalike for Linux and Unix running GNOME. In a move certain to draw criticism from some camps, Ximian also released a $69 module that allows GNOME to act as an Exchange client. It’s cheaper in larger quantities, of course.

Some people will object to it costing money, others will object to defiling Linux by connecting it to Exchange (and I agree that it’s defiling, but I don’t raise much objection). Remember, Windows 95 steamrolled everything in its path by connecting to anything and everything. Netware was king in those days; it connected well with that, and with everything else imaginable, from Banyan VINES to OS/2. So the more things Linux interoperates with, the better. Ideals have their time and place; this isn’t it.

I’ve been playing around with Evolution 1.0RC2 for the past week and I like it. I’m not an Outlook junkie, never was and never will be, but Evolution is elegant, complete, and easy to learn and use. It does a lot of things I’ll never use, but it’s pretty darn robust, reasonably fast, and a whole lot more secure than Outlook. The other thing I like about it is that it’s not just an Outlook clone; it actually tries to improve on Outlook in places where changes made sense. So if you’re addicted to Outlook but you’ve been bitten by viruses, here’s your out. Get a current Linux distro and download a copy of Evolution. Sneak it onto your corporate network and show it off.

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