Evolution Issues

I have been using Evolution since version 1.1.99, and am trying to consolidate email messages from disparate computers into once place. I've run into a number of problems and I have had difficulty finding answers in the usual places. So I ask them here (if another group here or on the lists is more suitable, please let me know!).

1. Does Evolution have a future on FreeBSD (or elsewhere)? I know that GNOME 2 support is winding down, and I've been using MATE mostly with success. If Evolution too is fading, is there a preferred email program that can replace Evolution (please don't say Thunderbird!)?
2. Does Evolution have a size limit on any of the files (Inbox, Sent, etc.) it uses? Some of mine exceed 4 GB -- the smaller ones of the order of 1 GB are easy to manipulate and work properly. The larger ones invariably have indexing issues, and I am unable to delete files from Trash. And yes, I do intend to break up the large files once I get them in one place if it is possible.
3. Does the entry order in the Inbox (for example) make any difference? I notice that even on files that can be manipulated, sometimes there are indexing issues when sorting by date. This particular Inbox file has dates that are not in order.
4. Does the Evolution file import function append the imported file to an existing one, or does it overwrite the old file?
5. Is there a good editor for dealing with large files? I have tried to use vi, and while it is able to read the file and search it (even if it is of the order of 5 GB), deleting text from a location to the file beginning resulted in a vi crash.

The system is FreeBSD-RELEASE 10.0, 64 bits, MATE 1.6.1, Evolution 2.32.1 (GNOME keyring enabled) given 10 GB memory / 300 GB disk running in a VMware Workstation 7.0 VM under Windows 7 (up-to-date) on a 64 bit computer with 20 GB memory / 256 GB SSD / 2 TB rotating disk. Everything else on the FreeBSD system seems to work fine. I have tried to use procmail/formail to clean things up without success.

1. Does Evolution have a future on FreeBSD (or elsewhere)? I know that Gnome 2 support is winding down, and I've been using Mate mostly with success. If Evolution too is fading, is there a preferred email program that can replace Evolution (please don't say Thunderbird!)?

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More information is needed on your requirements. Evolution is more than an email client. It manages contacts and a calendar. Do you need to sync with an Exchange server?

Also pertaining is the mailbox http://mutt.blackfish.org.uk/storage/, the servers you pull mail from (IMAP vs POP3), and currently a hot topic - SSL certificates and encryption.

I don't use the contacts or calendar/scheduling feature, though it is useful to have a calendar to use. That has to be available elsewhere.

I do not use an Exchange server; I use a POP server that I also manage, though it is located at my ISP.

Your requirements are pretty generic so you should be able to use just about any email client. It is also likely that Evolution from GNOME 3 will install although it will pull in a lot of GNOME 3 dependencies.

Older versions of Evolution used the mbox format while the newer version use maildir. The format your old emails is in will affect the ease with which you can import them into a newer client. There are scripts to convert between formats but I have not found them reliable.

mail/claws-mail has mbox plugin and mail/mutt can use maildir. Claws-Mail also has plugins for vcalendar/vcards.

There are stand alone calendars, some of which can sync with web based calendars. I recently switched from deskutils/calcurse to deskutils/osmo.

All of my old email messages are in mbox format. It is not clear if some are corrupted or not. That's why I asked the other questions.

Sorry for the "necro-thread" revival, I have similar use requirements as the OP, and also desire to avoid Thunderbird as well. I am leaving the Linux world, and so it's good to hear that I can bring along my Evolution archive, and do business-as-usual.