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Idea #21935: Your ideas to improve Evolution Mail

Written by smon the 19 Oct 09 at 16:33. Related project: Evolution Mail and Calendar. Status: New
Rationale
Evolution mail is a good but outdated solution for mail, calendars, ...

With this brain, I invite you to propose (and vote for) improvement ideas for the groupware Evolution.

Let's start the brainstorm !

105
votes
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Solution #1: Improve compatibility with online services
Written by smon the 19 Oct 09 at 16:33.
Evolution has a bad control of on line (WebDAV, Google, etc.) resources like calendars, tasks, ... Developpers should work on it.
74
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Solution #2: Review the user interface
Written by smon the 19 Oct 09 at 16:36.
The UI (user interface) is complicated and outdated. Gnome aims to be simple, ergonomic and user friendly, but Evolution is the perfect contrary of that.

Perhaps a Gnome Shell like UI could be a good idea ...
65
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Solution #3: Faster and easier searches
Written by xfuser4 the 19 Oct 09 at 17:19.
The current search interface is somehow slow and not easy to use. It could be based on tracker and reduced to a single search panel, that normaly searches also inside the content of a mail.
83
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Solution #4: Improve IMAP speed
Written by Rodrigo the 19 Oct 09 at 21:11.
Work on the way Evolution handles IMAP accounts so that it can work in a better (faster) way
65
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Solution #5: make if for human beings
Written by Shady3D the 20 Oct 09 at 05:25.
simplify all the UI clutter and the unnecessary options, and make it easier for non-geeks to use it without a problem
8
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Solution #7: Split Evolution in different Applications
Written by pubsbin the 21 Oct 09 at 23:39.
By pressing a button at the top left corner, Ubuntu is both a e-Mail app, a Calendar app, an Address Book app, and a Task-list app and a "small-memo" app. Each functionality should be separated in a different application.

Such a refactoring would have the following advantages:
- The user doesn't need to set up an email account and a POP service just in order to, say, write an entry in a calendar.
- Each application would have a nicer and more simple interface. The menus would contain less elements and with a smaller nesting.
- Simmilarly, you would get rid of the baroque preferences menu in evolution (side bar 6 options, each option average 5 tabs, each tab average 5 elements).

From the viewpoint of the developer, this would mean a more orthogonal design: each application could be modified and upgraded independently. And since the personal-internet applications evolves rapidly (twitter, Facebook, rememberthemilk, WebCal, etc...) it would be easier to adapt each application to its new working environment.
Also, you would have lightweight services for other applications: you don't load the mail for looking at your schedule, and you don't load the calendar for sending a document through email.

The only drawback would be that you could need to develop some "bridge" services (like Mail accessing AddresBook) but, on the whole, it would be an easier to use and maintain design.
49
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Solution #8: Ensure clean shutdown after log-off
Written by elias1884 the 22 Oct 09 at 19:49.
Evolution tends to leave processes running after log-off in multiuser environments! Either get rid of these background daemons - I do not quite understand why they are needed anyhow, all the other mail apps work without them - or make them shutdown properly after log-off!!!
45
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Solution #10: Full support of MS Exchange (all versions)
Written by Bobik-s the 27 Oct 09 at 15:12.
Without full support of MS Exchange (corporate standart for many companies) Ubuntu is nothing but OS for Linux geeks. Settings must be as easy as in MS Outlook. And full *.pst support as long as it's an open standart nowadays. Lack of this functionality really prevents business people from using Ubuntu.
30
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Solution #11: Add a find mail duplicates plugin
Written by sroland the 27 Oct 09 at 18:16.
Many times i screw up with my mail, and have downloaded twice, and there should be an option like right click in a folder and select "delete duplicated mail"... this whould make the removing duplicated mail a lot easier and is a simple task... right?

awesome piece of soft evolution...

regards,
38
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Solution #12: support multiple mail accounts
Written by xubaj the 31 Oct 09 at 18:39.
i have different mail accounts which all have different meanings (home, university, work) and i don't want them to be merged into one single inbox. i know there are message filters but this is just ridiculous.

this blog article describes this problem in detail: http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/2007/10/21/why-not-use-evolution-mail-client
45
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Solution #13: easy migration from Thunderbird
Written by xubaj the 31 Oct 09 at 18:51.
Thunderbird is a commonly used mail client. Evolution should have a easy migration function for account data, messages, contacts and Lightning calendar.
38
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Solution #14: Easy e-mail account configuration
Written by knkillname the 1 Nov 09 at 05:18.
For the average Joe it is almost impossible to configure an e-mail account due to technical terms in Evolution like "POP3" and "SSL". Configuring an account should be a little bit like the Empathy messenger: Select a network from a list (Gmail, MSN, Yahoo!, ...), type your user-name and password, and answer a few questions like automatic access or deleting messages from the server. Only advanced users should be prompted to the current GUI.
38
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Solution #15: Easy load of images
Written by knkillname the 1 Nov 09 at 05:41.
Many e-mail images are annoying, but it is more annoying having to select View/Message Display/Load Images from the menu every time you want to load them. It is more intuitive and eye-appealing to have the option just there next to the header: a button that says "Let me see the images" or something like that. Maybe the first time (and only the first) a message appears explaining the dangers of loading images.
55
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Solution #16: Make Evolution runnable in background
Written by knkillname the 1 Nov 09 at 06:13.
Problem: I need Evolution to alert me of new e-mails and appointments, but I don't need it to be occupying my precious desk space. If I close Evolution then I still get appointment alerts but lose the "new e-mail" notifications. Also the indicator-applet stops informing me of my e-mail status.
Solution: It should be possible to sit Evolution in the notification area or better yet, hide the window when minimizing (i.e. not showing in the window list).
34
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Solution #17: Better sync with google contact
Written by wombalton the 5 Nov 09 at 18:38.
i love the feature of directly synchronizing your google-contacts in evolution, but it would be really helpful if i could use the birthdays as well. i'm not sure about the google api's but i think it shouldn't be that hard to make it work.
35
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Solution #18: open .eml files
Written by wombalton the 5 Nov 09 at 22:42.
what really sucks on evolution is that you can not open eml files attached/forwarded to/with a message. I think especially outlook likes to forward messages in eml-format. why can't evolution show me this mails? works perfectly in Thunderbird...
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Solution #19: Add rss support
Written by 21thorns the 17 Nov 09 at 00:29.
Include the option to use rss with evolution. Include notifications and run in the background (like solution #16).
4
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Solution #20: POP3 Only Header
Written by Mirsof the 15 Dec 09 at 01:24.
Allow download only headers in evolution or limit email size
7
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Solution #21: Load more images simultaneously
Written by Peter-Alexander the 27 Jan 10 at 00:06.
When pressing Ctrl+I it takes too long to load the images because they are downloaded one by one. Every webbrowser loads more images at the same time to reduce download time.
1
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Solution #22: Video Mail and Voice Mail
Written by rinishak the 28 May 10 at 16:00.
Add the support to send and receive video mail and voice mail (not as mere attachments) to contacts, allowing users to communicate with their contacts verbally or visually.

Evolution should have an in-built video and voice recorder for all this, so that the user can just select New Mail > Voice Mail - for instance - and just start recording from within Evolution, and send it immediately.

I know it's a bit much for the typical mail service of today, but maybe it's time someone started on it. What are your opinions?
2
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Solution #23: New UI - something clean
Written by alfigueiredo the 3 Nov 10 at 17:24.
I want to see something clean like this: http://sparrowmailapp.com/

This e-mail client is like GMail for iPads. So I think that this can help us to have a light and easy mail client.
2
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Solution #24: WebDAV Contacts do also have birthdays....
Written by logge the 22 Nov 10 at 13:33.
...but Evolution seems to ignore them.
1
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Solution #25: Make Side Bar Optional / Notifications Linked to Inbox
Written by mdwy62 the 8 Mar 11 at 02:00.
Given the shortage of screen space on a netbook, I would like to use Evolution without the side bar. The problem with this is that I do not know how to navigate between folders and between different email accounts without the side bar. It would be nice if there was a way to do this through menus.

Also, the new mail indicator drop down shows in which account new mail has arrived. It would be nice if clicking on this dropdown would move to that account's inbox.

Propose your solution

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Comments
smon wrote on the 7 Nov 09 at 09:07
I like idea #7 : to split Evolution in different, applications, but i think that there also should be a "groupware program" to group all these apps ...

smon wrote on the 7 Nov 09 at 09:23
You can propose specifics ideas about Webmails (Google, Yahoo, etc.) support in Evolution here : http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/21786/

knkillname wrote on the 15 Nov 09 at 01:52
Every time Ubuntu releases a new version I try to migrate to Evolution but there are some annoying minor problems: I can't have multiple accounts managed on different folders, it's difficult to load images (except for the keyboard-shortcut), It doesn't render HTML well (colors, subindexs, font position or effects) and It has an awfully non-intuitive, too-complicated GUI.

If the Evolution team was aiming to build an Outlook clone they've done it really well: I feel like I am using a old-school corporate e-mail client rather than a modern easy-to-use client for home.

Don't get me wrong: I am a tech savvy, but I prefer the Keep-It-Simple-Stupid approach. Meanwhile I will stay with Thunderbird, Sunbird and Tomboy.

smon wrote on the 17 Nov 09 at 12:49
There already is a rss plug-in for Evolution ...

Drebon wrote on the 6 Dec 09 at 20:54
The killer feature to add to Evolution is a full MS Exchange support to allow it to run under many corporate (and sadly even universitary) environment.

Another annoying point is the UI that takes alot of space on the desktop (and sometimes even exceed desktop size). The window cannot be resized smaller than a certain size (that is different for mail and for calendar) that may exceed desktop resolution... That's a pity.



drachmann wrote on the 29 Jan 11 at 01:17
I like idea 22,,, that is the type of functionality a multimedia savy generation wants. Integration with cloud services, IM and social network oriented programs will also, make evolution a killer app instead of a useful dinosaur.

It doesn't have to bloat, it just have to have plugins for integrating with the other apps and new functions, so users can choose or not what they want to run.

The interface of evolution needs a decent polish too. :-)

logge wrote on the 21 Jul 11 at 07:04
It seems my proposal already got into 2.32.2 - thanks a lot!


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