Can anyone out there talk about the advantages and disadvantages of
evolution?

Here's where I'm coming from:  I've moved off Windows, and in the
process moved off Outlook.

I was really only using Outlook for address book and calendar
functions, and syncing with my pilot.  I was not using the Outlook
mail client, nor was I using an exchange server for all that
enterprise calendaring guff.

Now I use jpilot.

Things I liked about Outlook:  it had a significantly better database
model than the pilot.  Multiple addresses, tagging (the categories),
etc.

Things I hated about Outlook:  I couldn't get the addresses out to use
them well.

Question:  is there something we can use that has the richer data
model like outlook (Exchange?), syncs with the pilot (this has to be a
lossy sync), AND provides a nice open data model so that, for example,
one can just write some perl code to pull information out?

I've heard some people on the list talk about Evolution, but I'm
having a hard time telling --- is this just an Outlook port?  Does it
have the key misfeature of Outlook (nasty binary data format), or is
it more open, so that the db can be queried/munged by other apps
(without writing <shudder> C++ code)?

Thanks,
R