Robert Moskowitz rgm@htt-consult.com wrote:
For each of my 'identities' (day job, home business, teaching job, etc) to have the mail totally separated. Not to have all the mail munged together, particularly the in and out boxes!
In Evolution, you must configure this manually. That's because Evolution is designed to be an application in the CORBA 1:1 user:object-framework configuration -- much like Microsoft Outlook is in the COM+ 1:1 user:object-framework.
You're looking more for an Internet e-mail solution in the design of Outlook Express, Eudora and Thunderbird. So Thunderbird -- out-of-the-box -- is fairly straight-forward.
Also folder 'foo' can mean one thing at work and another for teaching. Yes, I could name them differently, but I
have
been doing it this for a lot of years.
Why not use multiple spool directories then? Or if you want to centralize it on a home server, IMAP stores? Then you configure each account to pop to different folders.
Evolution is pretty smart about setting the return address as it was pop'd.
But in reality, Evolution is _not_ likely the tool you want to use. It's really designed for a corporate network with a 1:1 user:object-framework, like MS Outlook or Novell Groupwise. You want an Internet e-mail client like MS Outlook _Express_, Eudora, Thunderbird, etc...
That's why Microsoft makes 2 different products: Outlook Express and Outlook.
So can I run multiple Evolutions?
Yes, like any other multiple X logins, including multiple CORBA/Bonobo sessions for each user, etc...
How you do that is up to you -- there are at least a half-dozen ways.
I suspect I can with multiple workspaces, but that is not what I want.
Not the "pager" -- that's completely _different_. A pager is just a pager, nothing fancy, Microsoft just doesn't include the functionality in the GDI in NT5.x (2000/XP) to this point (maybe in WGF1.x/NT6.0 "Vista" perhaps?).
What you're probably wanting is what (again, I'm using MS speak here) Citrix calls its ICA client in "seemless windows" mode. You launch remote programs from a Citrix server and they look like local program windows on your local desktop. In X-Window, you don't need any special software, or any separate server for that matter.
Here's a taste (do _not_ run production like this), in a X terminal, run ...
$ xhost + $ su - (enter root's password) # evolution &
Now you will be prompted with Root's Evolution setup. If you run a "ps -eaf |grep -i evo" you will see an instance of Evolution running for root (as well as your own if you had Evolution running). If you do "ps -eaf |grep -i bono" you'll also see an instance of Bonobo (the CORBA server for GNOME) running for root, as well as your own.
You can su and run as many programs as you want as whatever user when you have the local user run "xhost +". You can even run programs from _remote_ servers too! E.g.,
$ ssh -X bob@remote evolution
Now you will see a new Evolution program and window open, and it will be the user bob on a remote computer. In fact, because the program is running on that remote system, you will _not_ see the evolution or bonobo instance on the local system. But if you ssh over to that system and do a "ps" you will see them running as bob. You do _not_ even have to have a X session on that remote system -- because that system is displaying the X program on your local X server.
I am taking this to the gnome support forums (which I finally figured out how to find).
Your interest is in the more generic "why UNIX kicks Windows' ass out-of-the-box in an enterprise" area. ;->
These concepts are going to seem very foreign -- stuff only Windows Server and Citrix certified people seem to know about (at least that is what I tell the people I train) -- all lock, stock and barrel on that standard $0 Linux CD/DVD.
I did a search and saw a pointer to 'Fast User Switch Applet', but only source no rpm.
Again, you're starting to touch waters that have very, very different meanings between the UNIX and Windows worlds.
UNIX is inherently _multiuser_ out-of-the-box, and whether you run a terminal application or an X-Window application, you can run it remotely, locally, in a window or on its own desktop.
Citrix had to "hack" and "virtualize" the NT Graphical Display Interface (GDI) to allow more than 1 user to run programs at a time. It's called the "MultiWin" subsystem, and it's still imperfect compared to UNIX/X's _true_ multiuser.
When you use the "switch user" in NT5.1 (Windows XP) on the local system, you're merely telling MultiWin to put user X on the GDI, and virtualize the other user on a virtual GDI in the background. Windows Terminal Server (WTS) via the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), as well as Citrix WinFrame/MetaFrame via the Independent Client Architecture (ICA -- actually has several acronyms/meanings), allow MultiWin to run completely virtualized, with _no_ physical GDI, and display on a remote GDI.
X-Window and today's X-Window version 11 (X11) protocol in UNIX/Linux systems has done this _inherently_ for 2 decades. That's because X11 is just a framework that runs atop of UNIX's multiuser design, and doesn't care if graphics are real or virtualized.
Something Gates' decision to _require_ the GDI (i.e., always have a physical display/KB/mouse) in NT must be worked around with something like MultiWin.
But you still don't need to worry about this -- just use Thunderbird instead of Evolution, just like you used Eudora instead of MS Outlook.