I’ve been using Qualcomm’s Eudora for the Mac since the day I started at CDT, June 1, 1999. I’ve moved my Eudora settings file from Mac to Mac as I’ve upgraded machines over the years. And I’ve changed versions of Eudora many times since then. And changed from OS 8.something to my current OS X 10.3.5. And this morning I came into the office, opened Eudora, it started checking my mail, and promptly crashed. No joy.
I have extensively customized Eudora. Tons of mailboxes, messages, filters, address book. It just works. Yes, the stupid ad box is very annoying, but on my 15″ PowerBook G4 it is fairly unobtrusive. And paying an annual licensing fee to get rid of the ad box is not going to happen. 15 users in the office, times $50 per year. Sorry. We’re a non-profit, we need that $750. I’ll go through my mailboxes and see exactly how huge my Eudora setup is.
Coincidentally, I just got the October 2004 issue of Macworld. A cover story is “Mail Call! The Ultimate E-mail Survival Guide.” They make a point of reviewing Apple Mail, Microsoft Entourage, and BareBones MailSmith; and of explicitly not reviewing Eudora, because “the e-mail landscape has changed and, regrettably, Eudora has been slow to change with it.” It looks like I need to investigate MailSmith.