Opinion: Thunderbird vs Evolution [Archive]

measekite

October 21st, 2007, 01:04 AM

Just curious to know what the preferences are and why when choosing between Thunderbird vs Evolution.

Evolution has a bug in not being able to access help and no themes and extensions.

Thunderbird does ot have a built in Calendar and Task list.

Which of the two do you think will be updated on a more frequent basis. Evolution comes from Novell and I find it difficult to gage Novell's interest in that they do not get paid for it. Plus I think they put their priorities first in the commercial version of Suse and then in the free version of Suse.

Porpoise

October 21st, 2007, 01:14 AM

kyphi

October 21st, 2007, 01:19 AM

Both Evolution and Thunderbird are good programmes.

I use Evolution most of the time and was recently tempted to make a switch when a function in Evolution froze the system (Tasks). Yes, it seems to have a bug but then what programme does not.

As far as the Help section in Evolution is concerned - mine works perfectly.

There are other email programmes but, for the moment, I will continue with Evolution and retain Thunderbird as a backup.

I would not hazard a guess as to what Novell will or will not do.

This question has been asked before.

p_quarles

October 21st, 2007, 01:32 AM

I use Thunderbird and Kmail now, but when I was using Gnome, I thought Evolution was the best client, if it worked the way it was supposed to. It was buggy on my system, though, so I gave up.

As far as support goes:

Evolution is part of SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop), so Novell absolutely makes money off of it, and have a great deal of incentive to support it fully. After all, it's the closest thing to Outlook in the Linux world, and Outlook is one of the the killer apps for MS's enterprise clientele. Keeping it working is good for business.

Thunderbird, on the other hand, isn't doing so well. Two of the major developers walked away recently, and the whole project is undergoing a lot of reorganization. It's far from being abandonware, but I wouldn't expect many new features or improvements in the next year. Fortunately, it's pretty decent as it is.

dcstar

October 21st, 2007, 02:07 AM

measekite

October 21st, 2007, 05:37 PM

No Contest! Thunderbird wins hands down!

Why do you feel that way?

measekite

October 21st, 2007, 05:45 PM

Evolution Help now works fine in Gutsy, it also seems to be constantly updated as the version now is 2.12.0

How do I get the new version to run on Feisty? I want to keep Feisty for a few months before I make the switch. The repository does not have the new version.

p_quarles

October 21st, 2007, 05:53 PM

How do I get the new version to run on Feisty? I want to keep Feisty for a few months before I make the switch. The repository does not have the new version.
They're not going to upgrade it for 7.04, but you can always grab the source code and compile it yourself:
http://www.gnome.org/projects/evolution/download.shtml

Nano Geek

October 22nd, 2007, 02:05 AM

How do I get the new version to run on Feisty? I want to keep Feisty for a few months before I make the switch. The repository does not have the new version.

Grab the source code. (link above)
Run sudo apt-get build-dep evolution to install the necessary dev packages.
Do ./configure, make, and sudo make install.With any kind of luck it should work after that.

tbroderick

October 22nd, 2007, 02:15 AM

mutt ftw.

sicofante

October 23rd, 2007, 01:07 PM

I've been using Thunderbird for a while in Windows. It fails miserable at a feature I use extensively: search folders. On the other hand, in my migration to Ubuntu, I've found I can use Evolution exactly as I wanted: classifying my mail exclusively via search folders. I'm too new to Evolution to have a final opinion on it, but so far it's better for my needs than anything I tried before.

freebios

March 23rd, 2008, 06:44 PM

evolution is not free software it is owned by novell which is selling linux patents to microsoft and evolution has cross patents with microsoft. I think it would be more ethical to use thunderbird.

p_quarles

March 23rd, 2008, 07:01 PM

evolution is not free software it is owned by novell which is selling linux patents to microsoft and evolution has cross patents with microsoft. I think it would be more ethical to use thunderbird.
Incorrect. Novell is the primary sponsor of Evolution, and owns the trademark. The product itself is licensed under the GPL, which (last I checked) is recognized as a free software license by the FSF.

Thunderbird is in exactly the same situation. Mozilla owns the trademark, and releases it under a recognized free software license.

freebios

March 23rd, 2008, 07:34 PM

google it and see, thunderbird is not in the same situation.

p_quarles

March 23rd, 2008, 08:01 PM

google it and see, thunderbird is not in the same situation.
They are both sponsored by large corporations, licensed under free software licenses, and have restrictions on the use of the logo/names. What is different about them? Instead of telling me to "google it," please provide links to back up your vague assertions.

freebios

March 23rd, 2008, 08:26 PM

hey there is not reason to be harsh just because your an administrator please be professional. Novell's evolution has a cross patents with microsoft. Thunderbird doesn't have this situation going on as you claimed the situation was the same. I said to google it because it was too much information to write her and I wanted you to get a non biased opinion, or different opinion not mine. I am just trying to collaborate, please take it easy I am not making vague assertions.

here is a few links with more info, if any one is interested please let me know what you think.

http://technocrat.net/d/2006/11/2/9945
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/03/06/mix-novells-de-icaza-criticizes-microsoft-patent-deal

cardinals_fan

March 23rd, 2008, 08:26 PM

I don't use a mail client. Gmail is fine without one.

freebios

March 23rd, 2008, 08:38 PM

yea gmail is great. I used gmail with evolution, I now use it with thunderbird. I really like how easy it is to setup imap and pop settings. Not to mention even though google is a large corp they make significant contributions to the free software community, and is trying to help everyone out with its recent bid proposal with the fcc for the open gambit.

sicofante

March 23rd, 2008, 08:48 PM

I don't quite like the swiss knife approach of Evolution (besides the fact that its design was a blatant copy of Outlook) and I wish Gnome went for a more modular solution. However, some things are definitely better designed in Evolution than in Thunderbird like search folders, to name just one (I use them heavily and Thunderbird is buggy in that area) and the overall feeling or user experience is nicer for me.

I couldn't care less about the supposed ethical implications of using Novell software. Google doesn't seem to give a damn about Chinese human rights... I'm pretty sure if you look deep enough, you will find wrong ethics in all big corporations.

freebios

March 23rd, 2008, 09:03 PM

thanks for the feedback sicofante. check out this article for more info if anyone is interested. please let me know what you think.

http://techp.org/p/1

Jonne

March 23rd, 2008, 09:15 PM

I personally prefer Thunderbird, as I never undestood the whole 'put calendar and e-mail in one app' thing people seem to like so much. They're seperate tasks, so I want seperate apps. I use Sunbird for the calendering needs i have (and rainlendar, they share the same ical file. If only the gnome calendar used an ical file instead of evolution...). Sunbird is still a buggy piece of crap, but it works for what i do with it.

freebios

March 23rd, 2008, 09:18 PM

thanks for the feedback. I'll have to check sunbird out.

rune0077

March 23rd, 2008, 09:20 PM

I like Evolution better, but mainly just because of how it integrates nicely into my Gnome desktop. Thunderbird looks like it doesn't belong there. In terms of functionality, I demand very little of my mail-clients (if it has a somewhat functioning calendar and an RSS-reader, I'm a happy camper), so both gets the job done for me.

fela

March 23rd, 2008, 10:34 PM

I've been using Thunderbird since i started using ubuntu (not long after feisty was released), but when I upgrade to hardy i am going to try out evolution, cause i never gave it a chance and it might run faster. (That's pretty vital on my comp cause i don't have such a good cpu). plus evolution is more supported by GNOME.

bruce89

March 24th, 2008, 12:59 AM

Evolution is pretty much required in GNOME as it is is used in the clock drop down thing (tasks and appointments).

p_quarles

March 24th, 2008, 03:16 AM

The fact that Novell has a cross-patent agreement with Microsoft has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not Evolution is free software. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License, which allows you to examine the code, modify it, and redistribute it. Saying otherwise is simply false.

I'm sorry, freebios, but you're spreading the usual anti-Novell FUD. They're not my favorite company, but we don't need to go around making stuff up about them.

Foster Grant

March 24th, 2008, 03:33 AM

Thunderbird with the Lightning extension (which should be installed by default) gives me everything I need in a PIM: e-mail, task list, agenda, address book. It's just more refined than Evolution.

I gave Evolution a chance, using it as my primary PIM for about 10 days. However, I didn't like the interface (it's just not clean enough for me; unlike many people, I don't like the MS Outlook interface either), it seemed to gobble up more RAM (Gutsy runs more smoothly without it, and I have a 1-gig laptop), it sometimes had trouble downloading messages when first loaded and I never liked the way it handled addressees from my address book in e-mail messages (it may have an autocomplete feature, but I finally quit trying to find it).

Thunderbird's setup screens automagically set up Gmail accounts (assuming you've previously activated POP access in your Gmail account), which is nice. It tells you if the e-mail you're reading is potentially phishing, which is a good feature that Evolution doesn't have.

Honestly, I think it integrates better into GNOME than Evolution does.

freebios

March 24th, 2008, 04:08 AM

thanks p quarles for saying i am making up things about novell, did you read any of the links I posted? If you have a disagreement state it. you have done nothing but try to put me down in your posts. I am just trying to get feedback from the ubuntu community, I am not going to stoop that level and post threads that other users are making things and "fud" up like you said about me. thats especially wrong of you especially because your a staff member. please just discuss the thread and quit making personal attacks on new members that have only been here for a few weeks.

tigerplug

April 18th, 2008, 03:20 AM

For me its Mozilla everytime!

hariprs

April 18th, 2008, 03:37 AM

Evolution:
* Strongly integrated to gnome like outlook in windows.
* Less features
* Bit buggy
* Comes as default in most of the linux distros.
* Not that user friendly

Thunderbird
* Lots of features through add-ons.
* Easy to use
* Easy to configure
* E-Mail client of the year 2007 in linuxquestions.org

VMan

April 18th, 2008, 04:26 AM

I needed a "portable" solution. Something that I could use on multiple computers across windows and linux. I ended up with Thunderbird Portable from http://portableapps.com.
It runs great under Wine in linux and runs natively under windows. I installed the lightning extension for my calendaring needs. I don't need much, but I do need it with me, not on my computer at work, or just on my personal computer, or on some school computer where I may not be using the same computer next time. I also like the "no trace left behind" when using shared computers.

klange

April 18th, 2008, 12:10 PM

I use Thunderbird on my laptop. I find its built-in spam filter to be more reliable, which is great when I don't have anything installed server-side. Also, Evolution just plain stopped working for me - it stopped registering clicks outside of a very small area.

uguy

April 25th, 2008, 05:35 AM

I'm just now switching over from XP to Ubuntu, so I don't have that much experience in either Evolution or Thunderbird but I found one cool fix for a problem I was having: how to import my data, settings, addresses, etc from Outlook Express to any Linux email program...

I found several complicated procedures but the one I'm about to try involves installing Thunderbird on my XP machine, importing all info from OE, saving the "profile" to portable media and importing into Thunderbird on Linux machine...

[URL="http://howtoforge.com/importing_outlook_express_into_thunderbird_evoluti on"]

for detiled info... works for Evolution, too... keep on truckin'

PsyWolf

May 22nd, 2008, 09:46 AM

I like to be able to access my email handler from either partition in my linux/windows dual boot. I was able to set the up quite nicely with thunderbird. The other reason I prefer thunderbird is I like to be able to access all my accounts, from one program, but i like to keep them separate. By default Evolution seems to throw everything into one inbox. There is probably a way to change this, but when i tried it out last year, i couldn't find it.

Ux64

May 22nd, 2008, 04:42 PM

Evolution also mixes up indexes showing wrong messages. So it's easy to delete message that you didn't intent to delete. Serious bug imho.

It was even worse with previous version. But at least it showed warning. Now user won't get any warning that wrong message is being deleted.

AVH

June 4th, 2008, 08:30 AM

karellen

June 4th, 2008, 11:43 AM

KMail

Ux64

June 8th, 2008, 06:31 AM

I tried Evolution for about a year. I could never get the spam filters to work properly and I spent several full days trying over that time period.

Thunderbird's spam filters worked right away. So I use Thunderbird!

Yep. After several Evolution updates there are still familiar problems. Indexes getting messed up and spam filter not working properly.

That's life. I wonder what they have been fixing. ;)

nightalon

May 19th, 2009, 04:58 PM

It's really interesting, I now triple-boot on a laptop, desktop, and netbook. I decided at first to use the default mail programs for Mac, Win, and Lin.

On Windows I mean Thunderbird, since it seems to have much better support for IMAP than Outlook. (Outlook requires "purging" your inbox do actually delete stuff, whereas T-bird will do it on the fly) I will admit I've never tried Outlook Express for IMAP. (what my school uses...GNU Horde/Mailman I think)

I found that Evolution didn't treat my inbox the same way that T-bird does...sent items are saved locally, and I think it created a new folder for Trash, whereas I already had one.

I guess these are simple configuration options.

I also have a WinMo smartphone that access IMAP, and that too creates new folders for Trash and Deleted Items, which is super annoying.

I guess the simplest procedure would be to copy my T-bird profile for use on all 3 OSes, and I guess my netbook too. (I use my desktop as a server, so that's less important...there's always Webmail in a pinch)

Has anyone had any problems using the same profile in all OSes? Should I customize Apple Mail and Evolution so that they match how Thunderbird handles my mail? Does anyone have a solution for WinMo Outlook with IMAP and the folder names issue?

I want to try to sort this out once and for all in the next couple weeks. T-bird may be my best shot...does anyone wish T-bird could use GTK instead of XUL? Does it really matter? It would be cool if someone made a GTK and Cocoa front-end for T-bird the way Epiphany and Camino provide native front-ends for the Gecko rendering engine. (the (somewhat slow, somewhat bloated) rendering backend behind good old, reliable Firefox)

XubuRoxMySox

May 21st, 2009, 04:14 PM

Y'all are gonna think this is silly, :oops: but I like formatting in my outgoing e-mail. I want my messages to be pretty and fun to read. I throw in little animated gifs and make heavy use of color (both background and font) and LOTS of formatting.

I never found a way to do that in Evolution. Everything was just plain text - how boring! Thunderbird has a really nice editor right out of the chute when you click "compose," and I haven't even tried many of the extensions yet, but I couldn't find another e-mail program that lets me customize my outgoing e-mails the way I like, from background (images as well as colors) to formatted fonts and sigs.

-Robin

shkelzen

August 10th, 2010, 11:21 PM

This is an old thread actually and it's interesting to see how things have changed.

I have been using Evolution but recently installed the last version of Thunderbird and seems to be nice, especially when you want to make use of more than one e-mail account.

Anyway, both are great programs...:)

bunburya

August 13th, 2010, 08:29 PM

Old thread is old!

I use Evolution and quite like it, I've never used Thunderbird but had always wondered if it would be better than Evolution. I can't find many cons with Evolution, it tends to suit my simplistic needs. I just have it check my Gmail inbox every now and again and import the new messages; so Gmail sorts out all the spam filtering and stuff, I don't really see the problem.

I guess I do have problems getting it to alert me when I get a new message. I keep it open on a separate workspace and even though the Mail icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen turns green to let me know I have a new email, I don't seem to get the "New Message" pop-up which would be nice. But that's a very small problem.

I plan on using the calendar more in the future as well.

ex_isp

August 28th, 2010, 06:56 AM

I have been using evolution exclusively for 5 months now and really like it. However, recently, it's started getting the trash folder corrupted. Won't empty out...thats getting annoying...anyone else experienced this/ found solution?

discodonkey

September 1st, 2010, 05:12 PM

I am curious if Thunderbird allows me to use a view similar to the "To-do" view found in Outlook. I am using Evolution and really like it as it works well with our work Exchange server. However, I find it really annoying I cannot view my overdue tasks and my open tasks in one view that also hides the completed ones. Maybe I am just missing it.