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The problem with evo is that it does WAY more then is nessicary for normal home use. Where it shines is in a business context, as it is basically an outlook clone. I despise the program, but i dont think that management could function without it.

What we need is an Evo lite, or, dare i say it, Evo Express. ;-)

swarmi: "What we need is an Evo lite, or, dare i say it, Evo Express"

There may already such alternatives. Just try Claws mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws). It seems like an excellent powerful yet lightweight GTK+-based email client to me, lots of very useful plugins too, spam filters etc.
http://www.claws-mail.org/

I've been using Evolution - although in home use it may indeed be a bit too much - and I've often thought of maybe starting to use Claws instead too. But then again, so far Evolution hasn't be too bad for me either. And unlike some other commentators here, personally I think that Evolution is by far the most professional and best looking free email client for Linux desktops I've yet seen, although especially Thunderbird is very nice too, of course. (an explanation to Kmail fans: for some odd(?) reason I've usually had hard time trying to like the KDE looks/aesthethics although programs like Kmail do have lost of nice features; just a taste thing, I guess...)

Edited 2007-07-05 20:13

Actually, I believe the amount of features coming with Evolution is adequate. Many optional features extending the main program can be disabled with the plug-in system. I would use most of the features provided by Evo -- if they were working correctly!

Perhaps I am just unlucky, but I am experimenting many crashes (at least twice a day; in fact, it just did while reading a mail), slowness (calendar is barely usable here) or features that are just not working at all (Exchange support). It doesn't completely feel like a GNOME application either. These issues don't seem linked to a distribution (tried with Fedora, Gentoo, Ubuntu, Debian).

While a simple mail application could suit home users, a well-designed full-fledged groupware suite could do the job without confusing them. Unfortunately, I don't see "major overhaul" for Evolution in the GNOME roadmap. Kinda sad since it's one of the most important application for most web users.

Any replacement would be better than Evolution. Really. It's slow, it's bloated, it's buggy, it's ugly, it's broken.

Agreed !!! I first used it around the Gnome 1.4 days and it was a mess, now and again i bring it up to see if its improved and to be honest it has, but not so much as id use it day to day ... Its still all that you mention .. I did use it for a couple of days when i was trying to work on a Linux laptop in an all windows shop, exchange et al and it was ok, but not really good, i ended up saying fsck it and doing as the romans did, made my life a lot easier, Outlook just worked .. cough, when it was alive ... Mac Mail is the best mail client bar none, imho, Thunderbird next .... I have yet to see a good "group ware" client thats as seamless as the offering from MS ... So .. 10 out of 10 on effort Evo, you still have a long way to go though if you are to become all that you seek to be !!!