Evolution coming to Windows

One thing that can be said for the open source community, that can't really be said for Microsoft, is that we play well with others. If Windows users won't come to us, we'll go to them.

Case in point, Nat Friedman notes in his blog that Novell has hired Tor Lillqvist to help port Beagle and Evolution to Windows. I've mentioned Beagle on this blog before, but haven't blogged much about Evolution. Evolution is a "groupware suite," which is to say it's kind of like Microsoft Outlook for nix, without the amazing virus-spreading capabilities of Microsoft Outlook. It includes an e-mail client, calendar, tasks, and a contact manager. With Novell's (now GPL'ed) Connector, Linux users can use Evolution to work with Microsoft Exchange.

So why port Evolution to Windows, rather than trying to convert users wholesale to Novell's Linux desktop solutions? Novell is no doubt hoping to introduce Evolution as a interim solution that will eventually lead businesses to Linux. Oh, and Novell is working on making Evolution work well with Novell GroupWise as well.

Take away the dependence on Outlook, and you've reduced the level of resistance to moving users to from Windows. Take aware away dependence on Exchange, and Novell might be able to move users to GroupWise. Will it work? Maybe, maybe not -- but it's easier than trying to convince an organization to buy in to a wholesale migration. What do you think, will Novell have a shot at Evolving users from Windows to Linux? Tell me in the TalkBack section.