Re: [Evolution] A note, an appeal

[Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>]

> I'm using Chromixium; the latest version of Evolution is 10.4.x.  
> Very old.  No one at Debian (I guess) is keeping this updated, so 
> we're stuck with older versions.  And since Google deprecated their 
> address book access, there's no way I can see to sync Google contacts 
> with Evolution 10.4.x.

I presume you mean 3.10.4. AFAIK Gnome Online Accounts existed in Gnome
3.10 - just set up your Google account in GoA and your contacts should
appear in Evolution

> I've read the archives, and there's no help suggested.

I presume you mean about compiling (because there's lots of messages
about enabling Google contacts using GoA).  I'm afraid there isn't much
of a magic wand to compile the most recent version of Evo on an old
system - if the README worries you then I wouldn't try.

> And is there some way to communicate with the folks who maintain the 
> repositories to get them to keep up with the latest version of 
> Evolution?  They seem to do this with Thunderbird, with Chromium, 
> etc., but not with Evolution.

Evolution is a very different thing to Thunderbird - TB is essentially
a standalone application and is not specific to any desktop; Evolution
is a Gnome application and as such needs many Gnome libraries (usually
the same version as Evo) for it to work.  To see what I mean, try
running ldd on the executables - ldd tells you what libraries are
needed by the executables:

$ ldd /usr/bin/evolution | wc
    141     560    7843
$ ldd /usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird | wc
      8      28     347

So Thunderbird needs 8 libraries, Evolution needs 141

P.