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Add to SafariWhen comparing Office 365 vs Evolution, the Slant community recommends Office 365 for most people. In the question“What are the best Microsoft Office alternatives?” Office 365 is ranked 6th while Evolution is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose Office 365 is:
Office 365 is laid out the same way with a similar ribbon interface that will be instantly comfortable to long-time Microsoft Office users.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy to transition from MS Office
Office 365 is laid out the same way with a similar ribbon interface that will be instantly comfortable to long-time Microsoft Office users.
Pro Excellent integration and compatibility with MS Office desktop applications
Pro Allows for real-time collaboration
Multiple people can work on the same document at the same time.
Pro Speech to text dictation
Linux never got it together
Pro No installation required
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.
Cons
Con Proprietary
Uses proprietary software.
Con Dependant on having an Internet connection
Con Cloud dependent
Does not edit local files, they have to be synced first.
Con Unusable for business in the EU
Cloud applications are mostly incompatible with the EU general data protection regulation.
Con Has only a fraction of Microsoft Office functionality
Office 365 is not a complete replacement for Microsoft Office. The most advanced functionality still can only be found on the desktop.
Con Expensive
$35/user/mo.
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.
