[Ximian Announce] News From Ximian: Evolution 1.2 Beta1 Released!

Greetings from Ximian....

Today Ximian is releasing the Beta 1 version of Ximian Evolution 1.2.
Using Red Carpet, the Beta 1 release of Evolution 1.2 is available for
immediate download on all supported distributions  Ximian is looking for
your help in Beta testing the next release of Ximian Evolution.  

  1.  Ximian Evolution 1.2 Beta Overview
   2.  Distribution Support
   3.  Testing the 1.2 Beta
   4.  Ximian Evolution 1.2 Highlights
   5.  Important Note for Ximian Connector Users


**********************************
Ximian Evolution 1.2 Beta Overview
**********************************
With its introduction in late 2001, Ximian Evolution set a new standard
for email and personal information management on Linux and UNIX. The
product has received several major industry awards and has been
favorably reviewed in both Linux and Windows publications. 

Ximian Evolution 1.2 is a major step forward for the Ximian Evolution
product family.  If you would like to look at the Beta 1 release, it is
available for immediate download through Ximian Red Carpet. All you
have to do is launch Red Carpet and subscribe to the new Evolution Beta
channel and install Evolution. 

********************
Distribution Support
********************
Support for these distributions was released today (September 18, 2002)
        
      * Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 for x86 
      * Solaris 8 for UltraSPARC 

Support for these distributions will be released by the end of the week.
(September 20, 2002)
        
      * Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 (Potato) for x86 
      * Linux Mandrake 8.1 and 8.2 for x86 
      * SuSE 7.3 and 8.0 for x86 
      * Yellow Dog Linux 2.2 
      * Red Hat Linux 6.2


********************
Testing the 1.2 Beta
********************
As a small way to thank you for testing (beating on!) this software,
from now through the launch of Evolution of 1.2, the Evolution Team will
reward you for your bug-finding.  As you kick the tires and report
anomalies, you can become eligible for:

- The "Natural Selection" Award: The person reporting the most verified,
unique bugs prior to launch will win a BOSE QuietComfort(r) Acoustic
Noise Cancelling(r) headset
- The "Genetic Problem" Award:  The person reporting the thorniest, most
complex, bug will receive a $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com.
- The "Duckbill Platypus" Award: Another $100 Amazon.com gift
certificate goes to the person reporting the most bizarre bug.
- The "Monkey's Uncle" Award: The top 10 bug reporters will each win a
Ximian t-shirt.

Installation instructions, release notes and other information regarding
Evolution 1.2 and this Beta can be found at: 

http://developer.ximian.com/projects/evolution/release_notes/1.1.1.html

To report Evolution bugs, please use our Bugzilla Bug Reporting System
at: http://bugzilla.ximian.com.

 
*******************************
Ximian Evolution 1.2 Highlights
*******************************

Here is a partial list of the improvements that are planned for this
release: 

New features:

  * General
    - The toolbar now includes a "New" dropdown menu/button from which
      you can create messages, appointments, etc. from within any
      folder.
    - A new, integrated configuration dialog for all of Evolution is
      now provided.
    - When you use the folder selection dialog, you can now jump to a
      folder just by typing its name and hitting Enter (instead of
      using the arrows or the mouse).
    - You can now specify your default mail, calendar, tasks and
      contacts folders.  The shortcuts in the shortcut bar will always
      point to the default folder; so for example if you have an IMAP
      account you can specify that the INBOX on the IMAP account is
      default and clicking on the Inbox icon on the shortcut bar will
      take you to the INBOX on the IMAP account.
    - Fonts for displaying of HTML mail can now be configured from
      within Evolution (instead of having to use GNOME Control
      Center).
    - You can now make Evolution play a sound, beep, or display a
      message when new mail arrives.  It is also possible to trigger
      these actions based on a filter rule.
    - The behavior of the search bar has been improved, and the UI has
      been integrated better with the menu bar and the rest of the
      system.
    - For the table-based views, you can now define, save and reuse
      view settings using the "View" menu.
    - The Send/Receive button is now always accessible from any
      folder.
    - You now can drop objects (eg. mail messages, appointments)
      directly to the folders on the shortcut bar (in 1.0.x, you could
      only drop them in the folder bar).

  * Calendar
    - Loading speed has been improved.
    - When you receive an appointment through email, you can choose
      which calendar to update, and if it's for an existing appointment
      the folder is automatically detected
    - Calendar importer now supports importing to remote folders.
    - Calendar GUI and alarm daemon now use listeners for the
      configuration.
    - Show status messages for all long calendar operations.
    - Included timezone information on VCALENDAR's used in copy/paste.
    - Meeting scheduling improvements; sends replies when you update
      your attendance status, warnings if the user changes a meeting
      they didn't create.
    - Deleting a meeting with a right click will now offer to send a
      cancellation notice.
    - Can accept meeting replies from non-attendees (they become
      attendees).
    - Fixed task view to update completion status the same as the
      editor.
    - Set meetings to recur on  "last day of the month" or "last Tuesday
      of the month," etc...

  * Contacts
    - It is now possible to specify which folders are used for
      autocompletion globally.
    - Improved address selection dialog (for sending mail and meeting
      requests).
    - Improved feedback for search results for all back-ends and the
      UI.
    - SSL/STARTTLS support for LDAP has been added.
    - Various performance improvements
    - Fixed wombat/addressbook crashes dealing with autocompletion, it
      should be much more stable now.
    - Added support for categories searches on categories in ldap 
    - Much improved LDAP back-end responsiveness and performance.

  * Mail
    - New, much faster indexing engine.  This results in faster mail
      incorporation, faster mail display, and faster searches.
      Overall, the new engine should work much better for larger
      folders, and take considerably less space on the disk.
    - If you type multiple words in the search bar for the
      "... Contains" rules, Evolution will search messages that
      contain all of the words you specified, in any order.
    - More consistent search results for indexed, non-indexed and
      remote folders.
    - Better UTF8 (Unicode) support. Searches, folder names
    - It is now possible to mark messages for follow-up and other
      flags.  It is also possible to change the color in which a
      specific message is displayed in the mail list.
    - When the message list is sorted by a certain field, it is possible
      to jump to the first item in the list that matches a certain
      string by just typing the first few characters.
    - You can now specify which folders get synced when switching to
      IMAP/offline mode.
    - All previously read messages are automatically downloaded for
      IMAP/offline use. 
    - STARTTLS support for POP, SMTP and IMAP has been added.
    - You can have all of your mail Auto-Cc:ed or auto-Bcc:ed to a
      specified set of recipients.
    - SMTP error reporting has been improved.
    - Vastly improving body search vFolder performance with IMAP
      sources..
    - vFolders can now have an additional column which shows the
      original location of the message.  

  * Mail Composer
    - You can now edit a set of signatures within Evolution, and pick
      which signature you want when composing a message.
    - Handling of replies has been improved; in particular, you can
      now paste any text as a quotation, and quotation formatting is
      preserved when switching between HTML and non-HTML mode.
    - Evolution can now generate graphical smileys automatically as
      you type.
    - Quotation logic has been improved, re-wrapping long lines in
      replies now preserves quotation marks.
    - Multiple simultaneous language support in the spell checker.
    - Cut & Paste support for html between netscape/mozilla/evolution.
    - Optimized rendering of long messages.
    - Improved html rendering, including support for the clear
      attribute in <br> elements.

  * Summary
    - Can have non-local mail folders displayed on the summary.
    - Improved Calendar and Tasks displayed. Displays overdue and todays
      tasks in colors.
    - Better folder selector.
    - Better Weather/News Feed selector.
    - Can delete user added news feeds.

*****************************************
Important Note for Ximian Connector Users
*****************************************
If you are using Ximian Connector 1.0.x and would like to participate in
the Evolution 1.2 Beta program, contact Ximian ([email protected]) before
proceeding. The Beta 1 Edition of Ximian Evolution 1.2 is not compatible
with Ximian Connector 1.0.x. Installing the Beta 1 Edition of Ximian
Evolution 1.2 will disable your copy of Ximian Connector. You will no
longer be able to send or receive email using an Exchange 2000 server.



Thank you, and good luck with your testing!



The Ximian Team




_______________________________________________
Announce maillist  -  [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this list, or to change your subscription options, follow the link below:
http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/announce