Evolution again as default email app/client

@ipv Thank you for the clarification!
@jyaku Could you help us with more details about the source of information regarding Evolution’s support level?

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@jyaku I would really be interested to hear more details and also about the source of information regarding Evolution’s support and development level.

Milan, the developer of Evolution, recently wrote that he “just committed a giant
change in the Evolution’s mail composer code, a rewrite to use
JavaScriptCore API instead of the deprecated (since WebKitGTK 2.22) C
DOM API.”
It looks like there is still active development of this versatile email app. Its mailing list is also actively used by long time and new users. And as others mentioned Evolution has some advantages over Geary and Thunderbird.

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Ubuntu MATE switches from Thunderbird to Evolution!
“This release [Ubuntu MATE 20.04] also replaces Thunderbird with the Evolution email client. While Thunderbird is a quite popular desktop email client, Evolution integrates better with the MATE desktop and proves to be more useful.”
https://itsfoss.com/ubuntu-mate-20-04-review/
I can second the reasoning. Hopefully the main Ubuntu distribution can follow.

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Thunderbird is also absolutely ancient. The UI has barely changed since the 1990’s.

A good email client is Blue Mail.

Been having second thoughts about third party email clients after reading about this debacle:

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/05/16/edison-mail-sync-bug/

I downloaded something from the Ubuntu store called Unofficial Webapp Office which is basically web access to Outlook in a dedicated browser window. Seems safer than trusting some indie app developer.

Unfortunately we have not heard from @jyaku for two months.

In the meantime another reason to switch to Evolution has been persisting for 2 years:
Bugzilla: Thunderbird needs a persistent “new mail” indicator on Linux (notification)

No that’s not a reason:
1- simply switch to native persistent-as-you-want TB notification via advanced settings, key mail.biff.use_system_alert
or
2- keep GNOME notifications and install https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1505/new-mail-indicator/

Not necessarily. The app has access to the DOM (and therefore contents) and your auth tokens and from there the sky is the limit.

@fthx Thank you very much for tips!
Unfortunately mail.biff.use_system_alert does somehow not work for me, hopefully for others. I get a temporary notification pop-up but no new mail badge on the Thunderbird icon on the Dock.
The New Mail Indicator GNOME extension is handy. As Evolution is my default email client, it won’t turn on when there is an email in TB which I use at the same time.

I mentioned this issue as TB is the main email client for Ubuntu but there is still no new email counter/badge on the on the Thunderbird icon on the Dock. But there is now one for Evolution, see this AskUbuntu answer.

Ok maybe I can simply change the way this extension work. At the moment, it detects the default email client but I can easily, if you’re interested (please ask in project’s GitHub), make two separate extensions, one for TB, one for Evo, with optional text labels to make the indicators distinguishable.

But the main issue is that the TB GNOME notifications are not very reliable: sometimes missing, not all displayed, etc. The legacy TB notifications are more reliable, but clearly look outdated.

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Sylpheed could be another option if looking for lightweight software (which is rare these days)

@fito Thank you for sharing about Sylpheed. It looks interesting for a lightweight software.
In my situation I need a fully fledged and comprehensive email client and that is why I promote Evolution.

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Another sign that Evolution is still a good choice. Nour made the effort to write up A Full guide for EteSync module in Gnome Evolution app.

Recently I found a bug in Evolution, I shared it on the Evolution list and within a day the bug was fixed and a workaround was provided.

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I’ve always loved Evolution. It combines email and calendar by default (I’ve heard that Thunderbird is now shipped with a calendar as well, but only recently), it integrates excellently with GNOME Shell.

If I could replace Evolution with Geary and Calendar, using multiple accounts …, only then would I find it good enough to beat Evolution.

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I prefer its, (Evolution) calendar module over the separate gnome-calendar app to this day.

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thunderbird ranks at #10 in the top 10 global email client market share according to research & analysis done by various organizations & web sites.

unfortunately evolu-shun does not even get a mention, sad but true.

I wonder if those figure(s) you mention, factor in Ubuntu/Evolution use in enterprise markets. I have my doubts as most enterprise will be using ‘Evolution-EWS (Exchange Web Services)’ and/or Exchange mail server on their own iron.
It’s doubtful that Thunderbird is in the enterprise in any significant numbers, in my opinion.

P.S. Do you have a reference to these Various Organizations and Websites data in this regard. It would be interesting to take a look.

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Well quite frankly you’re the one that said some data was available being vague about it — So the onus is on you to back your words up — Not for the one asking for your evidence.
But that said — whatever floats yer boat.

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Unfortunately open source email clients are rare and rarely used. Even Thunderbird gets only 0.5-1% according to the links which popup on a DuckDuckGo-Search with your search text. Evolution may have 0.49% :wink:. Evolution mainly works on Linux and Thunderbird is probably the only long standing open source email client for Windows and Mac. Another reason why Thunderbird has maybe a bigger market share. And the reason mentioned by stephen-d-allen can also contribute.

But market share is not the real reason for me to not promote Evolution as main default email app & client in Ubuntu again but rather Evolution’s functionality and integration with Linux convinces me. That is why I have used Evolution for more than 10 years and have not switched my main emailing to Thunderbird although I also use Thunderbird as a secondary email client. And I still vote to make Evolution the main default email app/client again.

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Just noticed this today: ETE extension for Evolution.

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