Killer e-mail application. I have until now not experienced the decisive argument for me as a personal user of a computer to skip a Microsoft OS and install Linux. Sure, Linux is free, Linux is cool, but I have not dared to put action behind the words and actually use Linux and Linux based Open Source desktop application. Microsoft is the de facto standard for personal computing today. And I have not had the guts to plunge into the uncertainty of maybe not being able to connect, install, exchange programmes, files and so on with the rest of the world – at least that part of the world that I am normally communicating with electronically.

At PC Forum 2002 Ximian presented its Corporate Linux Desktop Solutions. Ximian is the a leader in providing open source desktop technology, applications, support and services for the Linux and UNIX marketplaces. I was very impressed with why I saw! In particular, Ximian Evolution™ 1.0 Integrated Workgroup and Personal Information Management for Linux and UNIX made my eyes almost fall out. The e-mail application seems to be beating all competition including Eudora and Microsoft Outlook. All e-mails with the entire content are indexed by the programme when received. The messaged are then placed in virtual folders (vFolder) according to criteria set by the user. The folders are virtual in the sense that the messages are not moved to the vFolder but remain in the inbox. What is very neat is that the messages can be “placed” in several vFolders, which makes it much easier to categorize and later find and retrieve messages. Under Eudora and Outlook you can only place a message under one folder. Furthermore, as the content is indexed searching is much quicker than the full text search necessary in other e-mail clients. Adding the icing on the cake, messages are automatically threaded! Oh, and did I mention: The Ximian desktop solution with the Evolution application is free! For those people including myself that need to exchange information with Outlook users and are afraid to be put out of the loop, Ximian has a critical solution. Ximian Connector is an optional add-in to Ximian Evolution that is now available for purchase. With Ximian Connector installed, Ximian Evolution functions as a Microsoft Exchange 2000 client, seamlessly integrated with Exchange calendaring and other mail storage and mail handling features.