Evolution (software)

Evolution (software)

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, and a “Search Folders” feature (i.e., saved searches that look like normal mail folders).

Evolution can be connected to Microsoft Exchange Server (by evolution-mapi plugin) or to older versions than Exchange 2007 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.