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. Evolution development is sponsored primarily by Novell.

Its user interface and functionality are similar to Microsoft Outlook. It has some distinguishing features: full-text indexing of all incoming mail, and a Virtual Folders feature. ( Virtual Folders are saved searches that look like normal mail folders).

Evolution can be connected to a Microsoft Exchange Server using its web interface and an Evolution add-on called Ximian Connector. Using gnome-pilot , it may be synchronized with Palm Pilot devices, and Multisync (software) enables it to be synchronized with mobile telephones and other personal digital assistants.

= Evolution 2 =

Evolution 2, which has been available since September 2004, delivers important new features:

= Evolution for Windows =

In January to Microsoft Windows, to do the same with Evolution. However, there is no projected release date or even timeline at the moment.

Before this announcement, several projects with the same goal had been started before ([http://evolution-win32.sourceforge.net/ Evolution for Windows] being the most notable), but none of them had even reached alpha status.

=See also=

*List of email clients *List of personal information managers *Comparison of email clients *Comparison of personal information managers

= External links =