LQ has provided great recommendations in the past, so I'm back for more. Our office is considering switching away from Windows workstations and possibly going to Linux. Of course, we need to replace all the things users have on Windows with something similar on Linux.

Right now, I'm looking for recommendations on Linux email clients to replace Outlook (2010). The client needs to support IMAP email, of course, and also have contacts and calendars. Calendars need to be sharable (I use WebDAV currently with Outlook). Our Director probably would find life difficult to live without color categories.

I've read that Evolution is a near drop-in-replacement for Outlook. Is that true? I'm going to experiment.

We currently use roundCube as our webmail client. Ideally, I'd like to use this one client for everything, but it does not appear to support shared calendars. I posted this inquiry http://www.roundcubeforum.net/index.php?topic=22156.0 in March of 2015 and received only one "try this" reply from someone who has not actually done it; must not be a big need in the roundCube universe.

I'm sure many of you have favorites (e.g. Thunderbird) and if you reply please give some details as to actual features/advantages that you like so I have something to go on.

I'm also sure many of you think Outlook sucks, but it is rather full-featured, is reasonably user-friendly and, mainly, it is what everyone is currently used to. Changing platforms is an immense paradigm shift so I'd like to keep everything else as familiar as possible.

Thoughts?

I'd say Thunderbird (+ Lightning for the calendar). I have never used Outlook so I don't know what "features" it has. With all the add-ons available for Thunderbird it's hard to imagine anything it can't do.
jdk

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I'n no expert on business software, but there seems to be quite a bit of information out there:
http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials...vers-for-linux
https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorial...able-on-linux/

While you're looking for other available software, you may find this site useful
http://linuxappfinder.com/alternatives

Zimbra Desktop Client is a "good fit". Check it out.

Thanks all, I'll check out all these links.

With respect the the Thunderbird and Lightning recommendation (jdkaye), can calendars be imported from Outlook? Can calendars be published/shared via WebDAV? The feature lists I found do not address these topics.

I've checked into Evolution and there are a couple of things I like. For one thing, Calendars and contact are built-in, no need for additional modules. Supposedly, I can import calendar info from Outlook (will try that in the next day or so). It also does make a big effort to ape the Outlook look-and-feel. Unlike Thunderbird, I can have message list and preview side-by-side -- these are potentially big pluses when trying to pry people away from Outlook.

There are rumblings of discontent with Evolution. Supposedly it is more buggy (but I haven't played with it enough). People seem to favor Thunderbird, but I really haven't found any comparisons as to why they like Thunderbird versus ... something else. Maybe it's just brand loyalty. I'd really like some concrete "pros".

More feedback welcomed

just my +1 for thunderbird.
i mean, come on, it's platform independent, it's been around for ages, it has loads of plugins, and i'm pretty sure it offers all the features you asked for (colored categories...).

evolution, otoh, seems to tie into the ubuntu/gnome/unity universe and desktop experience.

Another +1 for thunderbird. I don't know about sharing outlook calendars, but I connected the thunderbird calendar to my google calendar without any problem.

+1 Thunderbird.

Lightning uses CalDAV for shared calendars (what it was designed for) not a WebDAV kludge (one can only assume Outlook is intentionally crippled in this department to keep the lock-in with Exchange going...).

+1 for Thunderbird with Lightning

Evolution is the closest replacement for Outlook. Personally, I use Icedove (the Debian rebrand of Thunderbird) because I don't need all the features of Evolution. But I've used Evolution in the past, and it's the best choice for your use-case. Thunderbird is a great email client, but beyond that it's not the most capable app in the world. For a business replacement, I'd go with Evolution without a doubt.

I think Evolution is the only one that's going to import calendars. IMHO Evolution is not buggy but I also only use it on GTK desktops I don't know how tricky or buggy it'd be to use it on a K desktop. I like Evolution, TB, and Geary but I seem to always fall back on Evolution.

I can't make any specific recommendations regarding the software, but I know some large organisations have (tried to) move from MS to Linux.

One thing to consider is the extreme resistance of people to change, which I can understand. I don't like it when change is *imposed* on me either. Especially when the imposer doesn't understand the work I'm doing in the first place.

If you're a small group of people, maybe you all agree on the benefits and there's no problem. In a large organisation, you might find active sabotage from within the IT department... (let alone the complaints from the end users).

colinh2 - yes, I very much understand the "resistance to change" issue. Which is why I'm trying to make things "feel" like Windows/Outlook as much as possible.

Along those lines, here is my big issue. Outlook has color categories which are extensively used in this office. I've been testing these email clients per everyone's recommendation -- haven't done them all. Evolution and Thunderbird have 'tags' (Thunderbird) and 'labels' (Evolution). Evolution names its labels the same as Thunderbird's tags (Important, Work, Personal, etc.).

I am using these mail clients to connect to a remote IMAP mail server running Dovecot with messages stored in Maildir format.

Apparently, with Evolution, the label settings are kept locally.

With Thunderbird, setting a tag does set a corresponding Maildir flag, but Thunderbird apparently also keeps its tags locally and does not read these flag settings. So, a flag set by some other workstation, e.g. at home, will not be noted by the office workstation and show no tagging of the message.

I need a mail client that pays attention to the Maildir flags. Does anyone know of such a client off hand? I don't want to test 50 clients!

Yes, Thunderbird definitely does read tags from dovecot/maildir messages.

OK, I've been experimenting. Thunderbird is nice, but apparently (Lightning) does not refresh WebDAV published calendars once published. That makes it not a usable candidate for the office. Maybe it works with CalDAV, but I need it to work with WebDAV because that's all Outlook will do. I agree, Outlook is intentionally crippled in many areas as punishment for not using Exchange.

I will try Evolution and WebDAV ... does anyone know for sure whether this works?