-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 13-Jun-2002/19:47 +0930, Not Zed <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> > So, saying 'just like Eudora' doesn't mean much to any of us, for the >> > most part. >> >> >> Surprising. I thought many 'power' users preferred Eudora to dreck >> Outlook. This has never been a 'numbers game' for me. >> > >Well for starters (to people like me) ... 'power' users don't *use* >windows or macintosh at all, at least not for 'power' uses. I can't >recall seeing a Unix port! > >I only ever used eudora lite, and well, it was pretty shit.
I used Eudora back when OE was still called MS Internet Mail and News (note that the executable is still msimn.exe). Outlook was still on the drawing board. There were only two really good, free, standards-compliant mail clients for Windows: Eudora and Pegasus. Eudora uses an INI file for configuration ands keeps mail in RFC822 formatted text files. I needed to be able to process some of my mail using programs, so having the plain text available made that a lot easier. It also made it easier to switch to another mailer without losing any data or jumping through any export/import hoops. Anyone who has tried to switch from Outlook/OE to a non-MS mailer should be able to appreciate this. Eudora allowed me to specify the location of the config and data files on the command line. I used that ability to keep multiple users' data on a Linux file server and make Eudora's shortcut look for data in "\\linuxbox\homes\.eudora\". That allowed me to use Win9x desktops and still have some measure of security for user mail files. That feature could also be used to access different INI files for the same mail data, in effect allowing multiple POP accounts. Eudora was the first popular Windows mailer to support multiple accounts directly (Personalities). Eudora was the first to support message templates, redirecting (bouncing), nested aliases, multiple address books (all plain text for easy external processing), and probably some other features that I can't think of right now. Eudora had these features while OE was still either on the drawing board or in beta. Eudora allowed filters to set the font color in a message summary list. Eudora was the first Windows mailer to offer exclusionary filters (Recipient does not match any address in a specified list). I could filter out my mailing lists, then have Eudora check against my alternate addresses. Anything that didn't match was not addressed directly to me and was probably spam. This was unique stuff on Windows in 1995/96. Eudora also allowed me to download just the headers of messages. I could then set a desired action for each message (download+delete on server, delete on server, download+leave on server). On the next connection Eudora would carry out the specified actions. On a slow dialup link this feature came in very handy. Eudora also supported the POPSend extension to POP3. I don't know why this never became popular, but it allowed you to send mail over the (authenticated) POP3 connection. SMTP AUTH is probably better designed, but we could have prevented a lot of spam a long time ago if more mail clients had been able to use POPSend. Eudora was also the first mailer that you could download with a full PGP package and a plugin. That distribution decision alone introduced PGP to thousands of Windows users. Some of the features I described were only available in the Pro version, but I got enough email that paying $30 for Eudora pro was well worth it. I really wish Qualcomm had ported it to Linux. Tony - -- Anthony E. Greene <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> OpenPGP Key: 0x6C94239D/7B3D BD7D 7D91 1B44 BA26 C484 A42A 60DD 6C94 239D AOL/Yahoo Chat: TonyG05 HomePage: <http://www.pobox.com/~agreene/> Linux. The choice of a GNU generation <http://www.linux.org/> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Anthony E. Greene <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 0x6C94239D iD8DBQE9CqFgpCpg3WyUI50RArd1AKDK/apsvCSvMdWhLJ7kVYttbBcLsgCfTfMy 9ed4HJGP9KJB1PPz+WepWJo= =2SbH -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ evolution maillist - [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/evolution
