3 posts tagged “qualcomm”

After discovering a lot of bugs with Eudora 6.2.5 (why are there more bugs with newer software?) I bit the bullet and installed Eudora 7.1.0.9 (the last-ever release) just before I went to bed. Fortunately, the bugs that I found have been overcome with version 7, which is at least something: now I am back nearly to the functionality I had with version 4.3.2. Hooray—version 7 gets me back to the functionality I had in 1999–2000!
   Of course, it no longer works in Paid mode (because the last time I paid was 1999) and really, if it were not for the SMTP authentication issues, I would have stuck with the old Eudora, which caused me far fewer problems. I do have a distracting Eudora box for Sponsored mode in the way, though there is a method for removing, or at least hiding, it.
   Because Eudora 6 refused to load after being closed down, I dare not shut down Eudora 7 at the moment, so that is one thing I have not tested yet. Newer software gives me the creeps.
   I think I am right to prefer the old stuff. First, the code was more compact and, therefore, better “proofread”. I notice that the installer for Eudora 7 was nearly double the size of Eudora 6. Yet the program functions exactly the same.
   Secondly, the programmers kept things simple, without bloating the software.
   Throughout my computing history, the old stuff has generally worked better. WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS worked fine. The Windows version was good, too, but then WordPerfect 6 came on the market. That was a piece of junk: I seem to recall it even had trouble switching to italics. It was also far more bloated than 5.1. WordPerfect 8, which I later bought, was fine for the most part, but it had trouble working out the distances between columns. Good old 5.1 never had these issues, though it was pretty bad at updating printer drivers. It is only with WordPerfect X4 (14) that some of the bugs have been ironed out—over a decade later. Maybe someone started caring again.
   Netscape was the same. Everything was fine up to 4.7, then 6 took ages to load and could no longer handle PostScript fonts. It also could not handle some basic things such as displaying quotation marks in the prescribed fonts. As of version 7.1, Netscape still could not handle these things. Even Mozilla took till version 3 before it rectified these typographic problems, though now it is easily (in terms of typography) the superior browser.
   Internet Explorer 5 was a good product, 6 was tolerable but bigger, 7 kept crashing. I never found out what 8 was like.
   There are programs which break these rules. Adobe seems to consistently deliver good stuff, real improvements on earlier versions. But it is one of the few exceptions that proves the rule.

As I always say, the newer the program, the more likely it will be buggy.
   I needed to move to Eudora 6 because of the way version 4.3 could not authenticate properly with our SMTP server.
   I’m kind of OK with it except for certain issues.

• Eudora now longer feeds advertising through its Sponsored Mode, yet there is no way to close the old sponsorship window.
• The ability to preview the last selected message in the inbox through the preview window no longer works when multiple messages are selected.
• More spam gets through, as though McAfee SpamKiller has been rendered useless by the upgrade.
• When marking certain messages as spam (because SpamKiller is less effective now), Eudora reorders the inbox without my permission.

   As this is version 6, and not the current one, there will be no point informing the manufacturer of these problems. However, I am surprised that as it is v. 6.2.5—i.e. it has been through quite a few revisions already—that these very obvious bugs have not been ironed out. And I am unwilling to pay for a program, as I once did with the old Eudora, if it is buggier than something they came up with a decade ago.
   It is typical, sadly, of the way software has developed: some really are worse today, and I am a very good witness to it, having moved from a 10-year-old version of Eudora to a three-year-old one today, and finding the decade-old one more reliable on most counts.
   Here’s the real kicker: according to the Add and Remove Programs dialogue box in Windows, Eudora is by far and away the biggest program ever conceived for general use:

Eudora 6 is huge

I like being a bit of a Luddite when it comes to things like email programs. I have used Eudora 4 since the 1990s, and my particular 4.3.2.7 version since 2000. And why not? It works and I don’t need the flashest. Also, I have been immune from the viruses that have plagued newer email programs. That always made me feel pretty smug. The old stuff was more reliable.

Qualcomm Eudora 4.3.2 about screen