Eudora to go Open Source in 2007

Eudora supports users with multiple email accounts

[lexipixel]

Just went to Eudora's website to get info for a new customer who needs help setting up for multiple email accounts from multiple domains. Found an interesting notice: Eudora is going open source:

EudoraŽ email moves to open source development and delivers final commercial version -- Eudora 7.1 for Windows and 6.2.4 for Mac OSX.

The open source version of EudoraŽ is targeted to be released during the first half of calendar year 2007 and will be free of charge. Once the open source version of Eudora is released, QUALCOMM will cease to sell Eudora commercially.

I've used Eudora myself for about 10 years and have had many, many customers download the "sponsored" (free) version. It's hard to beat "great software" and "free" .

[txbakers]

Wow, that's indeed news. Eudora was one of the first email clients out there I remember.

Good for them!

[Compworld]

Does/will Eudora have the same features as Outlook? Have not used them since the ole dial-up days of the net.

[jtara]

I was a loyal Eudora user for years. But they got WAY behind. I switched to a commercial "Eudora-like" mailer and never looked back.

I'm in the process now of ditching Windows. I don't intent to install Vista. So, now I'm looking for a good Linux email client.

[Compworld]

Would LOVE to get rid of Windows. However, too many programs I use rely on Windows. Can't get rid of it. Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail software seems to be a good alternative in Linux though.

[encyclo]

[wiki.mozilla.org...]

The "Penelope" project's intention is to join the EudoraŽ user experience with the Mozilla platform. We intend to produce a version of Eudora that is open source and based on mozilla and Thunderbird. It's *not* our intention to compete with Thunderbird; rather, we want to complement it.

We are committed to both preserving the Eudora user experience and to maintaining maximum compatibility, for both developers and users, with Thunderbird. It is our goal to build a single development community around Thunderbird and Eudora, so that both mailers advance faster than they previously have.

The fact that the project is hosted by mozilla.org is the biggest clue - this is not an open source release of the existing Eudora program as such, but a new program based heavily on the Thunderbird base.

So the question is, apart from some import tools, why not just switch to Thunderbird?

I use Kmail (part of Kontact) in Linux (KDE desktop). I prefer it over both Thunderbird and Evolution (both for the Gnome desktop).

[jtara]

Would LOVE to get rid of Windows. However, too many programs I use rely on Windows. Can't get rid of it.

You can run most Windows programs on Linux under Wine. Wine is not an emulator. (Get it? W I N E.) It is an open-source replacement for the Windows APIs that runs under Linux - so programs run at essentially full-speed.

There is some fiddling with settings that is needed to get some programs to run. But there is a low-cost commercial version that comes with support and tested configuration files for the Office suite and a large number of popular programs.

The latest beta version even runs many popular games including Half-Life 2, CounterStrike, and World of Warcraft.

Yes, it runs Internet Explorer, which is, of course, an essential webmaster tool. (For checking compatability.)

[Compworld]

I've had a lot of problems configuring WINE. This would be the reason to why I am prob. stuck with Winblows.

[Leosghost]

In doze I run eudora and have done for a long time .since 2004 ( paid version )..tbird is just too kludgy ..hopefully this means that the resultant combination will have the filtering power of tbird with the speed and ease of use of eudora .

[jtara]

hopefully this means that the resultant combination will have the filtering power of tbird with the speed and ease of use of eudora

This is good to hear. Perhaps this will provide a free solution equivalent to what I use now.

I use a commercial product from a Canadian company that is very similar to Eudora in concept, does it's own HTML rendering (no MSIE or scripting vulnerabilities), has better, more-flexible filtering than Eudora, it's own scripting language, and has very fast indexing. (Earlier versions had some issue with speed of rendering mailbox lists, but this seems to have been resolved.)

I did have to purchase a third-party program to convert my Eudora mail files, as the built-in conversion is awful.

One of the frustrations I had with Eudora was the lack of a scripting language. The "stationery" feature is quite weak and inflexible. I tried using it for semi-automated responses, and it just didn't cut it. (i.e. do Reply With using stationery files for "no such user here", "we didn't send that spam", "I need more details to reset your password", etc.) The problem is you have no control over the order of the original message and the reply. Sometimes you want one first, sometimes the other.

[Lorel]

I've been using Eudora for years (I use it for all my text writing and only use Word when I have to open a file sent by a Word user) and recently bought the paid version hoping it could deal with spam adequately but I still have to visually inspect the trash bin before deleting known spam as they have no setting to delete automatically. Hopefully someone will come up with a solution now.

[bill]

I don't know if this is all good news. Eudora has a lot of problems and Qualcomm is abandoning it. So you're losing a paid professional back end support and you're gaining a bunch of volunteers.

Don't get me wrong. We need more top level e-mail clients out there, but is open source the panacea we all hope for with this software?

[Compworld]

What real options are there besides Outlook then? I agree on Thunderbird.. Not to crazy about that one.