For email clients, I would vote for Evolution. Since LibreOffice
unfortunately lacks an Outlook equivalent, users have to look elsewhere for
that. Evolution fits the bill nearly perfectly, handling email, but also
contacts, calendar, tasks, and some basic note-taking functions, together
with being able to handle scheduling on a network. Remember that Trisquel is
intended for small business as well as individual home users.
Furthermore, Trisquel's default UI look and feel is meant to be familiar for
novices and first time users coming from Windows. And similarly, Evolution
closely matches Outlook's user interface.
If there's anything I would change in Evolution, it's the name, in keeping
with my longtime gripe about free software projects making poor choices in
their names and/or logos. While the Evolution logo is fine, the name, while
not being as extremely bad as Iceweasel or Claws Mail, is still not as good
as it could be. Yes, "Evolution" as a name can be defended on the grounds
that it implies that it is being continuously improved upon, or that it is
better than other programs. However, it does not convey what the program
does, and also introduces an unnecessarily distracting and divisive element:
the evolution vs. creation controversy.
I hasten to state that I ACCEPT the scientific mainstream on evolution AND DO
NOT agree with creationism. PLEASE DO NOT waste everyone's time by
denigrating me on the assumption that I'm a creationist, or by denigrating /
dismissing creationists or posting refutations of creationism.
But advocates should not underestimate the importance of this issue. Gallup
polling in the USA
http://www.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspx
shows that by far the biggest portion of US public opinion on this issue
continues to believe that "God created humans in their present form" - a
plurality of 42%, and has never been lower than this number. The next
position, that "Humans evolved, with God guiding the process", is far behind
at 31%. The idea that humans evolved, with God having no part in the
process, is a tiny minority at 19%.
My point is that regardless of how true evolution is and how wrong
creationism is, and even granting that this is an important issue to debate
and win on, the name of an Outlook-equivalent computer program is an
inappropriate place to make that case, and also constitutes an entirely
unnecessary self-imposed barrier to the adoption of this program specifically
and even free software in general.
Since one of the great benefits of freedom is the ability to just copy a
program and change an aspect of it, even something as small as the name, I
propose doing the same with the Trisquel version of Evolution. Call it
"Overview", which is similar to "Outlook" and which would, like "Outlook",
refer to a feature within the program where you can get an Outlook or
Overview of your entire day, such as the most recent or important emails, and
your upcoming tasks and schedule items. It still doesn't directly inform the
viewer what it does, but the alliteration between "Outlook" and "Overview",
plus the logo of an envelope and clock, will provide some big hints.
