Evolution Calendar / PIM

[NJSS]

I am desperate for a decent calendar which I can share with two or three coworkers, host on the FastMail file store, and which will synchronise with Outlook, or which has sufficient features to entirely replace Outlook.

I know that Evolution, which took the Linux world by storm some time ago has now been ported to Windows, and feel that this might be the solution to my problem.

Is anyone using Evolution / FastMail file store as I envisage?

If not can anyone please suggest an alternative?

My ultimate goal is to move away from Windows entirely, but I am finding it difficult.

[JasonWard]

Very interesting, I can't comment if its useable, but I will investigate for myself over the next few days.

For those wanting to take a look at the Windows version look here http://shellter.sourceforge.net/evolution/

Jason

[registered_user]

Originally posted by NJSS

My ultimate goal is to move away from Windows entirely, but I am finding it difficult.

Have you considered Mac? They're cheap (yes, really -- the high cost argument is total bull and has been for several years now). They have all the commercial software you may need (office). They're Unix so all the neat stuff you're finding in the open source world is available.

I've been trying to use a linux desktop off and on for over a decade now and I'll be completely honest with you -- the linux desktop experience hasn't changed or really advanced in that entire period of time. It's kind of sad really. Every year, the OSS community gets all excited about the "promise" and "potential" of linux on the desktop, but I don't think that potential has ever been realized... and they've been trying for so long.

Sure, they'll tell you that in another few years, the linux desktop will be all caught up to the commercial vendors. They've been telling us that for well over a decade now. It still hasn't happened. I don't think it ever will.

I'm thinking of giving ubuntu a try on an old iBook I don't use anymore. But just looking at screenshots, I can already see grade-school mistakes in interface design that are completely inexcusable. Something tells me that I already know what awaits me this go around with Linux -- it will be exactly the same as last time and the time before that and all the other times I gave it a shot. How sad.

[DrStrabismus]

Originally posted by registered_user
I've been trying to use a linux desktop off and on for over a decade now and I'll be completely honest with you -- the linux desktop experience hasn't changed or really advanced in that entire period of time.

Ten years ago there was no KDE, Gnome, Firefox, Thunderbird Openoffice, Xine, Evolution, Gimp, Amarok, etc.

I'm inclined to think you don't know what your talking about.

[NJSS]

registered_user wrote:-

Have you considered Mac? They're cheap (yes, really -- the high cost argument is total bull and has been for several years now). They have all the commercial software you may need (office). They're Unix so all the neat stuff you're finding in the open source world is available.

Yes, I have. I didn't express myself properly in my earlier post.

What I am trying to achieve is a move from proprietary software and hardware to open source software and generic hardware.

Whilst I accept that Apple isn't as dominant as Microsoft, and thus to me is preferable, I don't want to run MS Office or Outlook on a Mac, although I suppose it is somewhat better than a 100% MS environment.

[registered_user]

Originally posted by NJSS


Yes, I have. I didn't express myself properly in my earlier post.

What I am trying to achieve is a move from proprietary software and hardware to open source software and generic hardware.

Whilst I accept that Apple isn't as dominant as Microsoft, and thus to me is preferable, I don't want to run MS Office or Outlook on a Mac, although I suppose it is somewhat better than a 100% MS environment.

The real problem is file formats, and there's no argument that open source software is a better alternative for people worried about lock in. It's just a shame that user interfaces haven't advanced at all in the OSS community for years (they've gotten prettier, but not better). I find that OS X provides a good balance, there is support for all of the major open source alternatives (open office, The (aptly named) Gimp, et al), but there is also support for the things you can't get away from quite yet, plus there is a slew of well made software that the OSS community just can't compare to yet (Photoshop being a canonical example, but general purpose day-to-day software like PIM apps from open source always seem to have at least one brain dead stupid missing feature or profoundly misguided interface decision). Apple was supporting open standards pretty strongly at first in OS X, but has since shifted to some more proprietary formats (Pages, iTunes and inexplicably in Mail) which is cause for concern. There's still enough open format support available on the system to overshadow that IMHO though. It's getting easier, not harder.

The open source desktop has gotten a lot prettier (as Strabismus has pointed out), but it really hasn't gotten much better (as he completely missed) and it's still years behind the competition. He's welcome to disagree if he wants and I'm sure he's not alone, but in my experience (and I have quite a bit of experience) with Linux both as a server OS and a desktop OS, it makes for a lousy PC operating system unless you really like to tinker with your software.