6.2 Evolution

Ximian's Evolution is an email client and personal scheduler. Previously, Evolution was available from Ximian as an add-on to Red Hat Linux. However, conflicts between Ximian's RPM packages and those distributed by Red Hat sometimes made life complicated for Ximian users. Evolution is now part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora Core, so Ximian users can expect more trouble-free operation and fewer problems when upgrading to new Linux versions. You can learn more about Evolution at http://www.ximian.com.

Evolution has four main functions:

Email client: Receives email from POP and IMAP servers and sends email via SMTP servers.
Calendar: Provides daily and monthly calendars to help you plan your time.
Task list: Provides a to-do list that helps you keep track of projects and deadlines.
Contact database: Provides a contact list that you can conveniently use when composing email.

Evolution is available via the Internet Email submenu of the GNOME and KDE menus . It also has a convenient panel icon, which resembles a postage stamp superimposed on an envelope. When launched for the first time, Evolution provides a wizard to help you configure its operation, as shown in Figure 6-7.

Figure 6-7. The Welcome panel of the Evolution setup wizard

Click Forward to move on to the Identity panel. There, you specify your full name and email address. Optionally, you can specify the name of your organization, a plain text email signature file, and an HTML email signature file.

Click Forward to move on to the Receiving Email panel. There, you specify the type of server you use to receive email, the hostname of the server, your username, and information on the security and authentication characteristics of the server. You can obtain this information from your email provider or determine the correct values by experimentation.

Click Forward to move on to a second Receiving Email panel. This panel lets you specify options about checking for new email and using folders and filters. You can specify the values according to your preferences.

Click Forward to move on to the Sending Email panel. There, you specify the type of server you use to send mail, its hostname, and security and authentication options. You can obtain this information from your email provider or determine the correct values by experimentation.

Clicking Forward takes you to the Account Management panel. This panel lets you associate a name with the account, so that you can distinguish from accounts you may add later. You can also specify whether the account is the default account. If you have only one account, you should specify that it is the default account.

Clicking Forward takes you to the Timezone panel. Click the map or use the drop-down list to specify your time zone.

Finally, clicking Forward takes you to the Done panel. From there, click Apply to save your configuration. At last, Evolution appears as shown in Figure 6-8.

Figure 6-8. Evolution's main window

The left pane of Evolution's window is a menu that lets you choose the contents of the right pane. The Summary pane, which appears initially, presents weather, news, and a status summary of Evolution. Clicking Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, or Contacts selects the corresponding Evolution function.

6.3 Pilot/Handspring Tool

Red Hat Enterprise Linux includes gnome-pilot, a tool that lets you synchronize your Palm or Handspring PDA (personal digital assistant) with your Linux system using your system's serial or USB port and your PDA's hot sync cradle. By default, Red Hat Linux is configured to enable you to back up your PDA to your Linux system or restore a backup from your Linux system to your PDA. You can also synchronize Evolution's calendar, task list, and contact list with your PDA.

To set up your system to communicate with your PDA, choose Tools Pilot Settings from the Evolution menu. The Welcome panel appears, as shown in Figure 6-9.

Figure 6-9. The gnome-pilot Welcome panel

Plug your PDA into its cradle and plug the cradle into your system's serial or USB port, according to the type of cradle you're using. Click Forward to continue. The Cradle Settings panel (Figure 6-10) appears. Specify the port to which the cradle is attached.

Figure 6-10. The Cradle Settings panel

If you've synched your PDA using a Microsoft Windows host, you can use the information in Table 6-1 to determine the serial port. If you're using a USB port, specify a port having the form /dev/ttyUSBn , where n is the number of the USB port.

Table 6-1. Linux and Windows serial port designations

Windows designation	Linux designation
COM1	/dev/ttyS0
COM2	/dev/ttyS1
COM3	/dev/ttyS2
COM4	/dev/ttyS3

Click Forward to continue. The Pilot Identification panel appears, as shown in Figure 6-11. If you've not yet perfomed a hot sync of your PDA using Gnome Pilot, enable the No radiobutton and specify the User name and ID you want to use. Otherwise, enable the Yes radiobutton.

Figure 6-11. The Pilot Identification panel

Click Forward to continue. The Initial Sync panel appears. As directed, press the PDA's HotSync button. If the hot sync setup succeeded, the Initial Sync panel displays the user name and ID. Also, check the PDA's screen to determine if the hot sync setup succeeded. If it failed, use the Back button to return to a previous screen and correct the problem. Also, check the cable connecting the HotSync cradle to the PC.

Click Foward. The Pilot Attributes panel appears. If you like, you can change the Pilot Name and Local basedir values.

Click Foward to perform the hot sync operation and a Success panel should appear.

By default, a hot sync operation merely backs up the data in your PDA. However, you can specify that various Evolution components —such as the Contacts database—should be synchronized with your PDA whenever you perform a hot sync. To do so, select Tools Pilot Settings Conduits from the Evolution menu. The Pilot Conduits dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 6-12. Its purpose is to show the available conduits, small programs that let you move information between your system and PDA. Note that five conduits now appear. By default, the conduits are disabled. You can enable a conduit by selecting it and clicking Enable. When enabled, some conduits present a small configuration dialog box (Figure 6-13). Generally, the dialog box lets you configure the direction of information transfer: either from the PDA to the system or from the system to the PDA. Configure each conduit as you prefer and then click OK to close the Pilot Conduits dialog box.

Figure 6-12. The Pilot Conduits dialog box

Figure 6-13. A conduit configuration dialog box

The conduits have the following functions:

Backup: Backs up your PDA contents to a file on your system or restores the PDA contents from a file on your system.
EAddress: Sends Evolution's contact list to your PDA or your PDA's contact list to Evolution.
ECalendar: Sends Evolution's calendar to your PDA or your PDA's calendar to Evolution.
EToDo: Sends Evolution's task list to your PDA or your PDA's task list to Evolution.
File: Transfers files from your system to your PDA or from your PDA to your system. You shouldn't enable this conduit unless you have a specific purpose in mind, in which case you should be careful to properly configure it.

Be sure to properly configure the direction of transfer—the Action—for each conduit. Otherwise, you may destroy important information by performing a transfer in an inappropriate direction. For instance, you could inadvertently transfer old data from your PC onto your PDA, destroying more recent data in the PDA.

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To perform a hot sync operation, connect your PDA's cradle to your system's serial port, place the PDA in its cradle, and press the HotSync button on the cradle. The enabled conduits run and transfer information between your PDA and system according to the conduit configurations.