[MR] text vs HTML email

[gbonar at auspex.com]

> I am afraid that the future of the internet (unless AoL changes things in
version 7) is going to be HTML in E-mail to make things pretty for those who
want pretty.


When most the the lists that we used were brought into being HTML mail was
an experiment.  It was a novelty.  That is no longer true.  10 years ago
most people didn't have email.  5 years ago there were still lots of people
that did have access to anything but text email. That is no longer true. All
but a tiny portion of the people, of the people in the World, are limited to
text.

HTML mail or something like it is here to stay. The reason for that is that
most people like it.  Imagine that.

I have been involve with UNIX in one way or another for going on 14 years.
I have been supporting and using computers in one way or another for 25
years.  Yes that means I used to program computers with punch cards!

I mention this because I have seen many things come and go.

"Shit no one needs a computer on there desk."
"What the heck do people need hard drives in there computrers?"
"No one needs more than 64k of memory"
"Do let you signature file go over 4 lines because otherwise you are wasting
my bandwidth"
"Why do you need that pointy-clicky crap when I can do as much with one
command"

People have you learned nothing from history. Don't you remember the
religion wars over whether GUI was a good thing.  Did all of those arguments
stop GUI interfaces? NO Why? Because people like GUI.

It is the exact same thing with HTML.  People like it.  It is useful. And
guess what guys they are going to win.  In ten years, no in 5 years we will
be arguing about something else and we will be laughing about how silly
these arguements about HTML were.

Why fight it.  You are going to lose.  People want HTML email.


Eogan "the only other herald that use HTML, I guess"