Dale schreef: > Neil Bothwick wrote: > >> >> Because it is insecure on some mail readers and unreadable on >> others. >> >> > Linux insecure? Never had that problem before.
Everybody doesn't always read the list on Linux, or using Linux mail readers. Suppose you're reading it at work, where they use IE (on your lunch hour, of course :-) ). Or even suppose you're one of those mad persons who runs Outlook under Wine/Crossover Office (because that's what your work/clients uses to send you mail, and it's the weekend, or you're off site). Suppose you're at a hotel on a trip (business or pleasure) and downloading your mail to a USB stick, which is inserted into a Windows PC, because that's what the hotel uses, and when you get home that stick will be connected to a mixed Windows/Linux network, from which any viruses that may have been in the mail will be able to propagate through the network, unless you have a "clean room" to protect the network while you make sure that the USB stick is clean and safe. It's a big world out there. Expand your thinking to encompass it :-) . > Unreadable I may can get though. I use Mozilla-mail so I am a new > fuddy duddy. :-) I can get HTML or text only just the same. > Actually mine shows up as HTML even though it is sent as text only. > This, :-) , shows up as a smiley when I get the post back. That does not mean that the mail is showing up as HTML. That conversion from a text smiley to a graphical smiley is a feature of the Mozilla mail readers (MozMail and Thunderbird); it converts the smileys it knows to graphics. It doesn't know all of them-- this.--> :-P --> will not show up as a graphic. I can assure you that this is the case (although you may well be displaying mail as HTML), because I have my mail set to display all mail as Plain Text (even if it's HTML; check View=>"Display Message as" (sorry, on my desktop it's in Dutch, so that may not be exact)-- you can choose between "Original HTML", Simple HTML" and "Plain Text" and I have Plain Text chosen), and I still get the smileys as graphics (because I have that set as well; check Preferences=>General=>Plain Text Messages=>Show emoticons as graphics). Trust me, I've been using Mozilla-based browsers and mail a long time, long before they were Mozilla (since the days there was only Netscape). You may well be displaying HTML mail (since that's probably the default), but that is unrelated to the smileys (since you can have them as graphics under plain text display as well). The thing about unreadable more likely refers to those who use command-line mail clients like mutt or pine, because they like them, or because they run a box without X (and just because you don't have X doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to read and respond to your mail-- this is Linux, after all). But as I understand it, HTML mail in a command-line mail reader dispays all the HTML tags-- and if you've ever tried to read the source of an HTML page, you know that trying to read *just* the text amongst the tags is a fast way to a severe headache. We're all volunteers here; not many are willing to risk a migraine just to determine the text of your question amidst completely unnecessary HTML tags. It's a big world out there. People have very different needs and use Gentoo in very different ways, but they come here anyway to help each other out. It's only decent to make that as easy as possible for them (especially when you're asking strangers for help), and the first step is not assuming that everyone is "just like you" (generic you)-- meaning, using X, on a desktop, on a client (as opposed to a server), working on a local machine (as opposed to ssl-ing into a remote machine), or have broadband and lots of disk space (so the size of HTML mail plus possible embedded fonts[!!] is not relevant). All we're interested in is the text of one's question anyway; there's no reason to send anything more than that, and doing so ensures that everyone who might be able to answer can easily read and understand what your problem is. Holly -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
