I must say that this is a shock to me.
However, I've always liked eudora for what it is.
And as long as it keeps being as accessible as it is, I'm going for it.
Thanks for this article.
I have only legally used th lite version.
Its going to be cool now eudora is going opensource though.
This does mean ofcause that it could become inaccessible, but
depending on the licences envolved we could make our own distribution.
At 03:45 p.m. 12/10/2006, you wrote:
Anyone who doesn't want to pay for The Bat! Or stick with Microsoft
Outlook may find the following of interest, especially existing Eudora users.
October 11, 2006, 2:57 PM
Qualcomm on Wednesday joined up with the Mozilla Foundation to
announce it is transitioning
Eudora
into an open source e-mail client that will be based upon
Thunderbird
. In turn, all future versions of Eudora will be free and Qualcomm
will discontinue
the current paid client.
Although it may seem like Eudora is simply abandoning its e-mail
software, which
has a small but strong following of loyal users, the company claims
the Thunderbird-based
client will retain "Eudora's uniquely rich feature set and
productivity enhancements."
The first release of the open source client is expected in early
2007, at which
point Eudora will cease selling the product commercially. In the
meantime, Eudora
will be priced at $19.95 USD and come with three incidents of
support in a six month
period. Until today, Qualcomm sold Eudora versions for a suggested
retail price of
as high as $49.95 USD.
Current Eudora users can choose to keep running the ad-supported
version indefinitely
after upgrading to version 7.1 for Windows and 6.2.4 for Mac OS X,
released last
week but announced only today. Qualcomm says it will stop displaying
advertisements
in the client sometime early next year.
"Qualcomm has decided not to remain in the email market because it
is not in alignment
with the core business or strategic goals," the company said. "By
moving Eudora to
an open source product, Qualcomm can exit the Eudora business while
still supporting
Eudora users and advancing the Eudora e-mail client at a faster pace
than before,
through the power of the open source development community."
"We're pleased to welcome Eudora and its millions of users to the
world of open source,"
said Frank Hecker, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation.
"This effort should
further enrich the Thunderbird technology platform and provide users
of both products
with an even richer email experience."
In recent months, reviewers continued to give Eudora the performance
edge for use
with enterprise e-mail, compared against Thunderbird (though not
against Microsoft
Outlook). However, in practice, some have noted Eudora has suffered
limited performance
problems with recent versions,
prompting in at least one case
suggestions that users (in this case, students) try Thunderbird instead.
