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Mozilla's Thunderbird and Firebird components will undergo a name change as these are apparently trademarked by the Ford Motor Company and Pontiac, a division of General Motors Corporation.

In response the team will rename the Mozilla-based browser and email clients in the next release. In following with their current Greek theme, the team has been throwing around the names Muse for the browser and Pegasus for Email.

Team members have a good "gut feeling" these names will not be confused with existing commercial products or trademarks.

I have used fetchyahoo (http://fetchyahoo.twizzler.org), and yahoopops (http://yahoopops.sourceforge.net/) to get my mail from Yahoo, and freshmeat also lists another alternative http://mrbook.org/mrpostman/

You still have to move your mail from POP to IMAP, but that can be handled by most e-mail clients.

Balam

We use spamassassin at work, which we've just setup recently.. We've been using pegasus email for years and years. Since the machines were ps/2s running dos 3.x. pegasus doesn't cut down on spam, but there is *no* excuse for email clients such as outlook that can infect your computer with such apparent ease. If you use a client like this, or force it on your users, you are an irresponsible net citizen.

I've switched now, but the thing that kept me on Windows for over a year when I otherwise would have switched was email. All the graphical email clients for Linux are totally inadequate. I ended up going with Gnus, which is _still_ missing one or two of the features I was accustomed to using in Pegasus Mail. (Granted, Gnus also has numerous features that pmail lacks, but I wasn't accustomed to using those.

I tried using Pegasus Mail under WINE, but the performance was lousy and many of the widgets weren't rendered correctly. I tried other email apps, but they all were missing features that I couldn't live without. (I get a lot of email. A lot of email. I have to have advanced filtering (regexes, yes, but also advanced in terms of what it can do to the message; one of the features I miss in Gnus is that my filters can't cause a message to appear in the message list highligted in certain colours I miss that feature on a daily basis) and folder management facilities just in order to function.

I don't understand how people can function with things like Mozilla mail and Evolution. For me, they just don't cut the mustard.

I'm getting by with Gnus for the moment, but there are issues. It's not multithreaded. It doesn't gracefully handle an unreliable or missing connection, which matters to those of us on dialup. There's the aforementioned lack of ability for the filters to set a color for the message's entry in the summary buffer. (This last I could fix in lisp, if I got off my butt and got more familiar with the Gnus internals, but the other two are probably beyond me.)

So, on the ballance, I'm still looking for an excellent mail client for Linux. I have everything else that I need (well, at least everything that I had under Windows; there are things I'd like that are not available on either platforms, but we'll save the outright dreams for another discussion), but this one category of application, I had a good one under Windows, and there's nothing to rival it that will run natively in Linux. I'm making do, but I still want my Pegasus Mail back.

I'm surprised not to see any references to Pegasus. I know it's windows only, but that is where Outlook runs... I don't have enough recent experience with Outlook to comment on how they compare, but I've been using it for a while and am quite happy with it. One feature is has that Outlook got rid of a few versions ago is the ability to pick and choose what to download from you POP server.

I've been using David Harris's Pegasus Mail program since late 1996 IIRC, it's been great.

Why don't you support him, since he's been making Pegasus better and better all the time? It's only $29.95 for the manuals (in PDF format).
--
Todd

To get back on topic... Good email programs like Pegasus don't execute external links when you view the mail. Not so with Lookout^H^H^H^H^H^H^HOutlook.

Well, that means they were using webbugs - proof that everyone should use mailer agents that either can disable network access or refuse to display HTML.

Mulberry displays HTML without images (Win/Mac/Linux x86+PPC/Solaris)
The Bat makes it easy to disable HTML. (Win)
Pegasus normally disables downloading images by http (Win)

Doesn't Pegasus Mail have support for LDAP addressbooks?

The nasties of HTML email can be nullified by using Pegasus Mail for win32 freeware if you are on windows. It has its own renderer that was specifically made to render HTML without exposing you to these problems. I love it like a teddybear. What's more is that you can force their HTML to act like plaintext of you want.

True, it helps, but dropping Outlook (Express) for any other mail program of your choice will have largely the same effect.

• Eudora (www.eudora.com)
• Netscape/Mozilla/Opera E-Mail Clients
• Peagsus Mail (www.pmail.com)
• PM Mail 2000 (www.pmmail2000.com)

Besides Eudora, which I use for five years or so and really like, there is Pegasus Mail, which is also free.

And it's available in German, too. For many not so tech-savvy Germans like my fellow workers or wife, it's absolutely out of the question to use an English client, so this is definitely a point to consider. Yes, it's also available in French and even Dutch.

I doubt that it will be enough for WINE developers to catch up with Win95. No one uses the out-of-the-box version of Win95 anymore, do they? There's all sorts of updates you need to get your software running and, yes, those updates include additions/changes to the API.

Yes and no. There are a lot more people than ever before using that MS-VMS^^^^^NT^^XP brand of OS than before, but a great many people still use win 9x^^CE^^ME. And the vast majority of programs still run just fine on 95OSR2. The key framework of the API is there in 95OSR2. 98 adds some bugfixes (which you can download anyway, and actually aren't all that common - the real F-ups seem to come from the application division) and "Active Desktop" aka "Active Pain in the Rear" which gets chopped on a lot of machines anyway. ME adds little of note beyond the removal of the "DOS" Mode boot option. If you don't run one of these MS programs you may not be able to run other MS products, but your ability to run world class applications that don't try to take over your computer like Pegasus Mail, Opera, StarOffice, etc. should be just fine. If they can keep DirectX less than a year or two behind I won't even need to reboot for games anymore.

A good solid WINE/Win95 compatibility would allow a lot of people to switch to a Free OS (gratuitous link) and quit paying the microsoft tax with minimal impact.

What about a shell account and SSH? I haven't used everything in your list but security was a concern of mine.

I have had Unix shell account for the past 5 years that I pay about $5/month for.
Accessing this shell account via SSH and using the port forwarding function would provide just about everything you would need.

The shell provider supports IMAP, SMTP, POP, Fetchmail, Procmail, a web interface for email, and Squid.

I use Putty (its free) in Windows to connect via SSH and forward over my local ports 119, 25, 110, 143, and 3128 over to the shell providers. For Linux I use higher local ports but to the same listed ports on the remote. Now I have an encrypted channel over all of these ports to my shell provider. Aside from being encrypted, it allows me access to all of these ports as if I was dialed into the provider or local on the providers machine. I can send mail as anyone (because I am considered a local user, its not relaying) to anyone. I can use IMAP with Pegasus (or Outlook and Eudora) on my laptop and keep the messages on the server, use the same on home PC but POP in to retrieve and delete. I prefer Pegasus on Windows due to a better method of selecting profiles and can be changed on the fly, supports PGP, and its also free. Fetchmail gets and filters the mail from my normal dialup provider and any other POP accounts I have to the shell account. I can also use the providers news server and squid. At work, this would help me mask my browsing and downloading habits.
Did I mention that I also have 10MB of space to store files that can be SCP'd over and a real live command prompt if needed?

I believe this is about as close to an all in one solution that you will find.

Pegasus Mail, here, and Eudora Sponsored (and possibly Light) version, here.

Unfortunately, a lot of companies have invested too much in Windows, or can't switch to !Windows because of other reasons.

However, there are plenty of alternative mailing programs. I use Pegasus Mail, and have found it to work rather well. Of course, I have it set for plaintext mail only, so that might be why I haven't been attacked by any javascript virii lately. ;P

I'll go for that. And no one can argue that there aren't free alternatives. Pegasus Mail is free, and it's immune to auto-executing worms. The only kind that can still run are executables, but the way the program displays mail means the user has to try a little harder to find the file and run it. Add to that the fact that mass-mailing worms are currently written to look at Microsoft address books and not Pegasus's, and you have a pretty good solution.

And it ain't a half-bad e-mail client.

I don't use it (I don't have pop3 email, long story), but I know some people who are happy with Pegasus Mail for a windows email client.

Pegasus is quite nice & free

Here's a secret tip: OpenXP is the open source version of legendary mail/news offline reader "CrossPoint". It runs in a console window, is very fast, and has all the features you could ask for, including support for various protocols and its own dialer (you can also use an existing Internet connection). OpenXP may take a while to get used to, but it's definitely worth it. I've used CrossPoint from ca. 1993-1996, and a friend still uses it today, although he doesn't care about the new versions.

For mail on Windows, I've been using Pegasus Mail for quite some time. It's more than a decade old and was recently released in version 4.0. Its interface, while graphical, takes a bit to get used to, and it's not open source (Windows freeware doesn't have Unix' open source tradition because of the lack of free compilers), but it is extremely feature-rich, renders HTML (terribly) and supports the Unix mailbox format for its folders. Only downside: I don't know if this relates to crashes of my NT machine (different story), but I've had some mail indexing problems with Pegasus, which made the search ignore some messages.

The situation was much worse with Netscape Messenger, which is the reason I haven't tried out Mozilla's successor yet: Messenger once ate a whole huge mailbox of mine during the process of "reorganization", when not enough disk space was available for this. So I would definitely be careful with Mozilla's Mail module, especially since it's not yet widely tested: You want your mailer to be reliable and not to lose data, ever.

Another semi-free contender is The Bat!, which is trialware and costs 25 bucks for students. I've heard very good things about it, but I have not yet had the need to switch from Pegasus.

On Linux, there are many more choices, and good things are increasingly being said about Ximian's Evolution -- perhaps it will be ported to Windows? Similarly, Balsa and KMail are nice graphical e-mail clients, and there's a huge list of text-mode clients which all have their strengths and weaknesses. You really don't have to decide on either one permanently because they can all access the same mailbox files (neat, huh?). Generally, because of the interoperability and reliability of Unix mail, if you have a choice, I recommend using a Unix system for all email. It may be a bit trickier to set up at first, but once you have a nice procmail and mailer(s) configuration running, you won't want to switch back.

You can get Nimda about seven different ways and 6 of them have nothing to do with running a web server. Just browsing an infected site, something beyond your control, with IE 5.5 sp1 or less was enough.

This is true, of course. This worm spreads in a number of ways, all of which exploit security flaws in Microsoft software:

• It can directly attack your computer if you are running Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS)
  • Consider using Apache instead
• It can attack as a mail attachment if you are using Microsoft Outlook as a mail client
  • Consider using Pegasus instead
  • Consider using Netscape 6 instead
  • Consider using KMail (on UNIX/Linux) instead.
• It can attack as an executable attachment to a Web page if you browse with Microsoft Internet Explorer
  • Consider using Opera instead.
  • Consider using Mozilla instead.
  • Consider using Netscape 6 instead.
  • Consider using Konqueror (on UNIX/Linux) instead.

Notice a pattern there? Yes, that's right. If you don't run Microsoft, you can't get Nimda. Or Code Red, or Code Red II, or SirCam, or Melissa, or...

This isn't about being a Linux bigot. You can't get Nimda on MacOS. You can't get it on Solaris. You can't get in on OS/400, or AIX, or an Amiga, or on *BSD. This isn't a matter of Linux being good. Linux is just ordinary, like any other half-competent operating system.

This is a matter of Microsoft being incompetent. Hopelessly, culpably, irredeemably incompetent.

No, what's really needed is a virus that sends an email to people in the user's personal address book that carries as its payload a letter explaining to all, just exactly why they shouldn't be using Outlook.

-- -- --

To whom it may concern,

You probably know the person who sent this email to you. This person has spread a malicious worm to your computer because they insist on using insecure Microsoft products.

Please take the time to call this person and suggest to them that they switch to another mail client. Here are some links you can point them to:

Pegasus Mail
Eudora Mail

By the way, I am attempting to spread this virus from your machine as you are reading this. If you have taken the appropriate precautions, good for you. If not, expect some phone calls.

Have a great day!

-- -- --

Hurray for pegasus mail! Another reason why this client is excellent is that when you get HTML mail, it ASKS you whether you want it rendered or not. I always tell it to show the plaintext. This protects you from viruses, tracking bugs, cookies, spam confirmation scripts... the works!

* Python scripting language. Pegasus Mail has a completely new object-oriented interface for use by extensions and plugins. We have taken advantage of this interface to provide a special plugin layer for the Python scripting language, a widely-used Open Source scripting engine. Using this, it will be possible to develop your own scripts to do just about anything, and integrate them into Pegasus Mail. And yes, we will be making sure that we don't fall into the same traps as Microsoft regarding problems with scripts executed by mail.

* Python scripting language. Pegasus Mail has a completely new object-oriented interface for use by extensions and plugins. We have taken advantage of this interface to provide a special plugin layer for the Python scripting language, a widely-used Open Source scripting engine. Using this, it will be possible to develop your own scripts to do just about anything, and integrate them into Pegasus Mail. And yes, we will be making sure that we don't fall into the same traps as Microsoft regarding problems with scripts executed by mail.

The problem is, encrypting email is a lot less automatic than when encryption is used for secure web transactions. When I visit and want to buy something I don't have to manually get their key, click the encrypt button, enter keys, send. No all you have to do is check that you've entered a secure zone. If in email programs all you had to do was click the "use encryption" tickbox and have the program sort all the details out then a lot more people would use encryption.

Pegasus Mail does this. By default it uses the built-in encryptor, a variant of the old crypt program, to encrypt the message with the passphrase you give it, but it also has a documented interface for third parties to add decryption modules. The QDPGP plugin handles PGP. It's pretty damn slick.

Pegasus has been around a long time, it's free-beer, and it's by far the best email program around IMHOP. Very regularly I hear or read someone wanting their email program to do this or that, and almost always pmail does it already. The only good reason not to use it is it doesn't run on linux. If you use windows, dos, or mac, I really can't see why anyone would use anything else. And the Linux port might materialise soon.

The problem is, encrypting email is a lot less automatic than when encryption is used for secure web transactions. When I visit and want to buy something I don't have to manually get their key, click the encrypt button, enter keys, send. No all you have to do is check that you've entered a secure zone. If in email programs all you had to do was click the "use encryption" tickbox and have the program sort all the details out then a lot more people would use encryption.

Pegasus Mail does this. By default it uses the built-in encryptor, a variant of the old crypt program, to encrypt the message with the passphrase you give it, but it also has a documented interface for third parties to add decryption modules. The QDPGP plugin handles PGP. It's pretty damn slick.

Pegasus has been around a long time, it's free-beer, and it's by far the best email program around IMHOP. Very regularly I hear or read someone wanting their email program to do this or that, and almost always pmail does it already. The only good reason not to use it is it doesn't run on linux. If you use windows, dos, or mac, I really can't see why anyone would use anything else. And the Linux port might materialise soon.

I beg to differ. The latest version can support IMAP. And David Harris is in the final throes of adding IMAP support to his mail server, Mercury/32.

From http://www.pmail.com/overviews/o vw_ winpmail.htm:

Pegasus Mail.... can send and receive Internet mail on its own using standard protocols (SMTP, IMAP and POP3). ...