When comparing Evolution vs Calcurse, the Slant community recommends Evolution for most people. In the question“What are the best calendar apps for UNIX-like systems?” Evolution is ranked 3rd while Calcurse is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Evolution is:
Evolution is one of the few Linux desktop e-mail clients that's supports exchange servers.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Supports exchange servers
Evolution is one of the few Linux desktop e-mail clients that's supports exchange servers.
Pro Great integration with Gnome environment
Pro Manages contacts, tasks, calendar and memos as well
Pro Excellent GPG support
The integration with GPG is excellent. You can sign, encrypt, decrypt, authenticate and verify GPG signatures and GPG signed/encrypted email messages. All of that is just a setting away.
Pro Good support for Google's services
Pro Clean interface with 2 layout variants
Going to View > Preview has the option of switching between "Classical View" and "Vertical View".
Pro HTML rendering is great
Of the many email clients available on GNU/Linux, Evolution has the best HTML renderer. It renders HTML and the entire email content exactly like it would appear on a full blown web browser. Not many email clients are capable of doing that.
Pro Supports arbitrary backends
E.g. CalDAV. Via its load/save hooks.
Pro Efficient
Uses very few resources, starts in the blink of an eye.
Pro Scriptable
You can use it in scripts via its command-line interface, and run scripts from it via hooks. So you can automate everything away, instead of being forced to use a GUI. A powerful feature.
Pro Fully customizable
Shortcuts, data sources, you name it. As real software should be.
Pro Simplicity
Cons
Con Can't choose different settings for each mail account
Settings have to applied to all mail accounts.
Con Limited configuration options
Cannot format date as preferred.
Con RAM heavy
Very heavy on RAM usage.
Con Poor integration in any non-GNOME desktop
It is written with GNOME in mind.
Con No configuration messages
Although base functions like bullets, numbered, or pre-formatted text are possible, you can't select or set the font for your messages. Not even serif or sans serif. Which is a bit spartan TBH.
Con Can be wobbly with EWS
Don't be surprised if you have to reboot it a couple of times during a working day, because error messages are piling up (e.g. connection lost, can't sync, can't store appointment, read only). Then again, is this Evolution, or what it connects to? And since such an occasional reboot is dwarfed by the fact that MS365 seems to make full IMAP/ SMTP access (close to) impossible (nice meeting invite, THX, but when is it?), just reboot and get some work done...
Con Only available on Linux
If you have to switch to another platform for whatever reason, you will need to search for a different email client.
Con Not made for app users
If you come to any professional or console software, expecting it to just behave like your Windows GUI apps, … you’re gonna have a bad time.
You will need to know what you want, and actually tell the program so, by configuring it. So that then, it will fit you like a glove instead, of you having to fit into a dumbest common denominator mold. Like all professional software.
Con No built-in help
The “help” function only tells you that you can use help on the program’s functions. But not what functions there are! How can you know what to ask for when you don’t know what there is? It’s like a text adventure game or Family Feud all over again.
Con Keybindings also used by certain graphical terminals
The keybindings of either program have to be changed in that (rare) case.