I downloaded and installed the final release of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala on my Dell M4400.  So far I’m very impressed with the fit and finish of this latest Linux release.  Evolution is one of the many e-mail clients avaialble for Linux but one of the very few with the ability to access your corporate Microsoft Exchange Server by default.  It is very similar to Outlook on your Windows desktop so you will feel right at home with this release.  Below is a walkthrough of how to connect Evolution to your Exchange 2003 server.

When you launch Evolution you will be presented with the following setup screens:

The first dialog box presented is “Restore from backup” which, as the title suggests, restore from a previous backup.  I skipped this step as this is a new installation.

The next dialog box is “Identity” which is where you enter your Full Name and e-mail address associated with the Exchange account you are trying to setup.   If this is your primary account you can leave the checkbox checked for “Make this my default account” as I did above.

In the “Receiving Email” dialog bx that appears next you will enter your Outlook username and Outlook Web Address URL.  If you are unsure what it is it will typically take the form of  https://domain name/exchange/.  Be sure to include /exchange after the URL if applicable.  Then press Authenticate to enter your Exchange password.  If successful you will see your Exchange mailbox username appear in he Mailbox: field.

In the “Receiving Options” dialog box you will see several options to set the frequency and limits of your Exchange e-mail box.  You can simply leve the defaults or modify them to your liking as I did above to improve security and frequency of e-mail delivery.

In the “Account Management” dialog box you configure the name of your newly configured account.  Work, Personal, or your Company Name works well here. 

Then that’s it…  Just press the Apply button and you are immediately brought to the Evolution application with its new configuration.  It will immediately start downloading your e-mail and associated folders, including Calendar, Tasks, Memos (Notes in Outlook), and Contacts.