Digital Signing (Beat The Dead Horse) was Re: Free Software for m$

[Craig White]

On Tue, 2002-09-24 at 23:36, Derek Neighbors wrote: 
> On Tue, 2002-09-24 at 21:13, Tom Achtenberg wrote:
> > I am using Outlook 6.  I haven't a clue what you mean by "RFC compliant".
> 
> I assume you mean Outlook Express 6?  I am not updated on M$ products
> but I think that Outlook only has 97, 98, 2000, XP.  RFC is a standard
> that people agree upon, M$ just happens to be a vendor that often
> decides to agree, but not implement.  Also, embrace an RFC and extend it
> is popular as well, but thats another debate.
> 
> Certainly the email client I am using could be at fault, I really dont
> pay all that much attention.  I havent had anyone else not be able to
> read my mail though (which is what made me suspect), but certainly I
> wont point fingers at one email client over another with a clear
> conscience without all the facts.  I just havent had the best of luck w/
> m$ clients munging things.  Winmail.dat is a perfect example of this....
> 
------ 
Outlook Express being the throw away mail client from Microsoft where
they use it specifically for 3 purposes... 

1 - to prevent others from being able to market a mail client for
profit. The 1-2 punch to dominate the internet by dominating the client
applications used on the internet by giving them away free. 

2 - to interface with their Hotmail/Passport system 

3 - to shape the standards in the Microsoft way. 

As for the winmail.dat - that is truly curious. Their 'RTF' format was a
great idea...instead of publishing specs on their data file formats,
they published specs on an exchange format. Many years later, they added
this to their mail client which allows someone much greater versatility
to formatting their emails which of course catches the eye of the people
who are locked into style over substance. Of course, no other vendor has
any interest in supporting this non-standard mail format. 

Considering what Microsoft has done to Eudora and other mail clients by
giving Outlook Express away, and the fact that Outlook Express has been
the greatest virus magnet the computing world has ever known, there
should be a rule on this list that mailman implements to kill any posts
originating from Outlook Express. 

Yes Derek, your emails come through just fine when signed. I'm using
Evolution which I love because it is patterned off of the Outlook 2000
application.

Craig