VLC is such an incredible tool, I use it just about everyday to do everything from just watching a video to recording streams . Don’t forget to donate in some way to your favorite apps. I know the VLC group could use some help to keep them going.

I use ConnectionManager as a cute part of my “work flow”. Sadly this hasn’t been maintained very well by the original maintainer, but others have picked up the project and are keeping it patched to keep running. https://github.com/sciancio/connectionmanager2

I wish I could help you but I didn’t get the impression that the OS is the one with the problems.

I have used Evolution in the past. It was very Outlook like and did a decent job talking to Exchange. Now days i just use the web interface.