[5] It combines e-mail, address book, calendar, task list and note-taking features.

[12] Evolution Data Server (EDS) is a collection of libraries and session services for storing address books and calendars.

For Exchange Server 2003, 2000 and possibly earlier versions supporting Outlook Web App the package evolution-exchange is recommended.

It felt there were no e-mail clients for Linux at the time that could provide the functionality and interoperability necessary for corporate users.

It released Evolution 1.0 in December 2001 and offered the paid Ximian Connector plug-in which allowed users to connect with Microsoft Exchange Server.

Novell decided to integrate the Exchange plug-in as free software in Evolution 2.0 in May 2004.

The reasons given for the decision were the cessation of active development on Mozilla Thunderbird and the need for an e-mail client with good support for Microsoft Exchange.

[23] In January 2005, Novell's Nat Friedman announced in his blog[24] that the company had hired Tor Lillqvist, the programmer who ported GIMP to Microsoft Windows, to do the same with Evolution.