Business and enterprise software, and other applications that help a business run

If your company has gone to Linux and you are really missing the features that Windows Outlook provided, you may rest easy. The same is true if you have a Mac. Similarly, if you are a Windows XP user and just want to get rid of as much Microsoft software as you can, things have just gotten better. For any of these situations, your company can go with Evolution, the Open Source alternative built especially to replace Outlook.

Evolution has been running on Gnome and Linux since 2003. It has become a very popular email client and personal information manager on that platform, especially for those users who came to Linux from Windows. In mid-2007, a version was released for Windows, with the exception of Windows Vista. Evolution development is sponsored by Novell, who purchased it form Ximian, the original developer.

The software performs all the same functions as Microsoft Outlook, and is interoperable with the popular Windows email client, meaning that it will react the same as Outlook to outside stimulus, like the receipt of a meeting request or an email. It has a similar calendar and to-do list as well. In addition, users an sync Evolution to a variety of mobile devices.

The newest version, Evolution 2, has the following new features over and above the features offered within the previous version:

• 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/)
• as from 2007 - a connector for Scalix is available.

As noted above, Evolution 2.x is available as a download for Linux, Windows, and Apple computers through the Novell download site.