Re: [Evolution] About performance

[Mark Filipak <markfilipak linux gmail com>]

On 2013/5/13 8:30 AM, Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
> On Mon, 2013-05-13 at 10:05 +0100, Pete Biggs wrote:
> > > But man this is kind of the same problem of the known kernel IO problem
> > > that also I reported and nobody not much people trust just because they
> > > didn't see any problem.
> > Because one person reporting problems is not usually credible - it's
> > indicative of a misconfiguration or an issue elsewhere.  Yes, it
> > sometimes is a problem, and given an infinite amount of resources all
> > such things would be investigated - but with limited (very limited)
> > resources, the developers have to concentrate on the things that have
> > the most impact for the most people.
>
> AND, it is important to note, that LINUX [and related applications] is
> used very successfully in a myriad of situations by a whole lot of
> people.
>
> Most low-level bugs at this point in time are extremely narrow, it is
> unreasonable to expect the world to jump on them when they harm 0.0001%
> of the universe.
>
> > > The same occurs in evolution. Just because it works well for you it does
> > > not mean it's  working well.
> > > I can tell you that performance and usability degraded over time.
> > but not for most people.  My experience is that Evolution has become
> > more stable and more usable over the last few releases.  And yes, it has
> > become faster and more responsive.
>
> Exactly, it has gotten faster and MUCH more stable.   Some component may
> have broken, or something degraded, but "Evolution" has done neither.
>
> > To be honest most of the grouching about the stability and speed of Evo
> > seems to be coming from Ubuntu users
>
> Or people with *unbelievably* ancient versions.  Every time I see
> someone complaining about 2.32 or even 2.28... my jaw drops.  I just
> don't get it - why do that to yourself?
>
> >   - that may be because there are
> > just more users of Ubuntu than other distros; or it could be something
> > that the Ubuntu packagers have done to Evo; or it could be some
> > interaction of Evo with other libraries that Ubuntu have modified.
> > That's not to say that there aren't reported problems with other
> > distros, but they don't seem to make Evo unusable like it reportedly
> > does on Ubuntu.
>
> They [Ubuntu] have had some very lemony releases; so everyone gets to
> experience the long-tail of those versions.
>
> > File bugs about it.  That's the only way the developers can get a view
> > on systemic problems and can spot patterns.
>
> And bugs do get fixed.  My latest bug report was resolved in 48 hours.
>
> > It's also very helpful if when you do submit a bug following a posting
> > to this list, that you tell us the bug ID - at least then if some one
> > searches the list archives (because we ALL do that before posting, don't
> > we) they can at least see if the problem has been fixed, or can add a
> > comment to the bug.
>
> And perhaps people on the list can follow the bug or add something to
> it.  I've done that several times.
>
> > Finally, the developers make advances and improvements and bug fixes in
> > the current version and only bug fixes in the previous version - so it
> > is always worthwhile running the most up to date version before
> > criticizing things too much.
>
> Yes.  3.6.x is a major release back.  3.8.x *does* fix some performance
> issues, especially related to flaky connections.  Or it certainly seems
> that way to me.

I'm new to Linux, Adam, so please excuse my ignorance. In my Linux virtual 
machine I'm running Evolution version 3.6.2 and I've experienced sudden crashes 
at start-up & while idle (not doing anything). Evo 3.6.2 is what my Software 
Manager fetched when I selected to install Evolution. How does a linux-person 
get and, especially, install the latest version? (Simply pointing me to a web 
site is fine.)

Thanks - Mark.
--
VMware Player 5.0.2
Host: WinXP3, 32-bit
Guest: Linux Mint 14, 64-bit + Xfce 4.10