Thunderbird-based Eudora 8 beta 1 debuts
updated 02:55 pm EDT, Tue September 4, 2007
Eudora 8 beta 1
The Mozilla-Eudora partnership has debuted Eudora 8.0 beta 1, a new release of the Thunderbird-based email client that incorporates the "Penelope" add-on. Whereas Eudora is a Thunderbird-based client with extra features added by the Eudora developers, Penelope is an add-on that adds additional functionality to both Eudora and Thunderbird, but is built into the former. According to the development team, most features in Penelope can be accessed when used with Thunderbird, but there are a few that require Eudora in order to work correctly.
In the new release, toolbar icons (and a few other icons) from the original Eudora were moved to Penelope. Also, keyboard shortcuts from the original Eudora were moved to Penelope. You can configure whether these shortcuts in Penelope or the original Thunderbird ones are used in the Penelope panel of the Options/Preferences dialog. Additionally, the menu structure of original Eudora has been copied to a great extent in Penelope.






Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2005
Lessons [not] Learned
Eudora has always had a couple features that, although obscure, are significant technical advantages of the product. 1) the ability to automatically strip attachments to a folder, so that you can manage files in a file system, not attempt to manage files in email. Links to the files remain in the email message. 2) the ability to define mail groups that have access to a central storage repository, so that attachments were not bouncing around the net, eating bandwidth and creating a configuration management nightmare from all the copies of a file now distributed everywhere.
These 2 features make Eudora stand out, at least from an IT management perspective, above virtually any other email client currently available.