For Windows

[Robert J. Hansen]

On 3/14/2011 8:23 AM, Jerry wrote:
> The point being that at some point you have to move on.

Yes, exactly.  At some point *you* have to move on -- but you don't get
to say if, or when, other people decide to move on.

For the time being, a lot of people are still on platforms that use
outdated software.  In this case, Outlook Express (although I agree with
Doug: I believe Windows Mail still has the same problem).  The question
is whether in our desire to move on we're willing to write off the
possibility of communicating with people who have not yet moved on.

> Outlook Express is dead.

"Dead" is a subjective term, and not one I believe is appropriate here.

> Would you have the creators of every piece of software out there
> continuing to waste time and resources on making their software
> backward compatible?

Of course not: however, that's not what we're talking about here.  What
we're talking about is inline signatures.  The code for this already
exists, is stable, and isn't going away anytime soon.  The question is
not whether we are going to spend resources specifically targeting OE,
but whether we are going to use *already developed* resources in order
to facilitate communication with OE.

> Many of the complaints from FOSS users is that Microsoft's products
> are bloated. To continue to support architectures that are no longer
> viable is to bring the same criticism upon us.

Quite the opposite: one of the big selling points of the free UNIXes is
how well they function on old, outdated hardware.  I could install one
on the very first PC I ever owned, a 386DX/20.  Support for old systems
is a feature, not a bug!

> Now, start the creation of a new branch that supports only modern,
> fully RFC approved standards.

Inline signatures /are/ standards.  RFC 4880 is far newer than RFC 3156:
by your logic, 4880 should supersede 3156 and we should all move to the
current standard and abandon 3156 support.



Note: I'm not advocating everyone use inline signatures, the same way I
don't advocate everyone use PGP/MIME signatures.  Use what works for
you.  At the end of the day, that's the final analysis, the only
interesting result.