Its time for something new…

As far as internet email applications go, I have long hated the Microsoft offerings (from Internet Mail to Outlook Express to Outlook). I’ve used many email applications: Netscape Mail, Eudora, PegasusMail, pine for windows, and several others over the years. When I worked at TIAC I used to maintain a Eudora help site. It was a fast lightweight and very capable email program. It didn’t suffer the integrated with the OS security issues that the Outlook branch(s) did. Often I would beta test new versions of Eudora just to learn the quirks of the installer and changes to the program versions to better help customers, and for my own enjoyment. So long have I used Eudora that I have several registered copies….

But now that Eudora Beta 7 (7.0.0.10) is out and I have been using it for a little while… its time to give up. Eudora is so bloated and slow its time to move on to something else. Now granted its a BETA, but how can you justify adding 7.21 mb to the install archive with absolutely crap for new features. (Eudora_6.2.1exe installer 9.09mb, Eudora_7.0.0.10_BETA.exe installer 16.3mb, Eudora_7.0.0.16_beta.exe installer 16.4mb). Here is the NEW FEATURE list from the 7.0.0.10

NEW FEATURES
————
Offline IMAP – While Eudora is offline certain actions can be performed locally
and Eudora will notify the server the next time Eudora is online. Supported
offline actions are: changing the status of messages (read/unread, deleted/undeleted),
transferring/copying messages as well as creating, renaming and deleting mailboxes.

IMAP Improvements – IMAP performance has been improved by performing actions locally
first (where possible) then communicating with the server later in the background as
well as by reducing the number of commands Eudora must issue to the server. Eudora
also allows deleted IMAP messages to be hidden from view (the new default) or viewed
along with non-deleted messages. Eudora can now also be set to purge deleted IMAP
messages on a schedule specified by the user: never, always or when the number of
deleted messages reaches a certain percent of the total messages in the mailbox.

Indexed Search – Eudora now offers the option of doing faster (indexed) searches
powered by the X1 search engine. This is available in Paid mode only.

Boss Watch – Eudora can now warn you before you send mail to certain recipients,
which could help keep you from sending a message to people you did not mean to
include. This is available in Paid mode only.

S/MIME plug-in – Eudora now supports digital signing of messages via S/MIME.

LDAP with SSL – Queries can now be performed using SSL on LDAP servers
that support SSL.

One of the little things that I absolutely loved about Eudora was the ability to disable the splash screen. This is really trivial and minor but back in the day when manufacturers started adding Splash Screens to every App under the sun some programs didn’t have a way to disable this pop-up like add for the program that you just executed. How asinine is it for the program that you just executed to pop up a screen to tell the application. I should hope that you know what it is, after all you just executed it. For as long as I can remember you could go into your Eudora.ini (deuodora.ini now) and add the line NoSplashScreen=1 and no longer would it display the pesky pop up.

Now the application is bloatware pure and simple. No longer is this rock steady and fast application either of these things. Qualcomm your customers are unhappy you need to fix your primary software offering if you want your reputation to stay intact. Personally, I’m off to look for another email application. For about 10 years I have watched your product evolve, and right now your floundering.

ps Anyone have any suggestions?