Re: The future of gnome-pim - and Balsa, too?

[Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam whitemice org>]

>>>>With Evolution 1.0 soon to be realeased, I'm a bit concerned about the
>>>>future of other GNOME applications that implement some of its
>>>>functionality, mainly the Calender and Address Book, but to a certain
>>>>extent Balsa, too.
>>>First,  I am a very happy Evolution user.  Evolution FINALLY plugs a
>>>HUGE hole in the Linux application suite,  the calendering etc...
>>>actually can interact with other e-mail platforms (cough, Outlook,
>>>cough).
>>Evolution is nice for ex-window users but should not kill others MUA, ...
>I agree. My main objection to Evolution is as I indicated earlier that it
>tries to handle several different tasks that I don't think belong in the
>same application - and its developers seem unable to give any good
>arguments against this. I know the answer to the question about why exactly

Why does the Palm and every other PIM support E-mail, calendar, contact
info, and task lists?  Because these all fall into the same problem
domain,  I'd be happy if Evolution and Gnome Meeting / telephony merged.
That as well is the same problem domain.  Communication and
communication related information.  I don't see how anyone can logically
seperate there e-mail from their contact list and their project list.
One app or multiple utilities,  makes no real difference in the end,
the problem of personal-information/communication integration needs to
be solved.

>these tasks were integrated, of course, it is simply "because Microsoft did
>it", but I don't think that's a good answer. This touches on another
>concern I have about GNOME: I think that too much time is spent on
>emulating MS Windows behaviour. Why? Aren't we all using Linux/Unix because
>Windows is crap???

No.  I'm using UNIX because it is open, more secure, more flexible, and
more cost effective.  In many aspects Windows is great.  In many aspects
Linux/UNIX stinks.  Windows is "crap" the same way the internal
combustion engine is "crap",  but it sure solves to problem for millions
(billions?) of users.

>Having said that, I really appreciate the fact that the different types of
>functionality in Evolution are split into different reusable components.
>Maybe some of the good bits ought to be integrated into Balsa?

That would be great.