Pegasus Mail
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| Pegasus Mail | |
 Pegasus Mail 4.41 under Windows XP |
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| Developer: | David Harris |
|---|---|
| Latest release: | 4.41 / July 16, 2006 |
| OS: | Microsoft Windows |
| Use: | E-mail client |
| License: | Freeware |
| Website: | www.pmail.com |
Pegasus Mail is a freeware, proprietary, electronic mail client that was developed and maintained by David Harris and his team. It was originally released in 1990 for MS-DOS, but was subsequently ported to Microsoft Windows. A version for Apple Macintosh also used to be available.
On January 3, 2007, it was announced that development of Pegasus Mail was suspended due to dwindling financial support. Then on January 22, 2007 it was announced that development would be resumed on Pegasus Mail as donationware and Mercury (email server) an a licence fee for installations with more than a base number of mail boxes (tbd).
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[edit] Features
Pegasus Mail is suitable for single or multiple users on stand-alone computers or on local area networks. Pegasus is extremely feature-rich and powerful, yet remains small and fast. Some commentators have described it as convoluted and cumbersome to configure whereas others value Pegasus for the features it offers. A key feature of Pegasus is that the viruses written to exploit security issues in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, such as Melissa and ILOVEYOU do not affect it (nor do they affect other non-Microsoft email clients).
The original version worked with Novell NetWare networks and its MHS mail system; a cut-down MHS-only version called FirstMail was bundled with NetWare. Early versions used an idiosyncratic format for mail folders; later versions offer the standard Unix mailbox format as an alternative to the historical Pegasus Mail format.
Pegasus Mail supports the POP3, IMAP, and SMTP protocols as well as Novells MHS. The current version has added support for filtering of spam with header and body checking for key phrases (already before download). The latest release 4.41 also offers a fairly improved HTML rendering engine, better support for special character encoding (especially with UTF-8), phishing protection, a fully-fledged Bayesian spam filter, and much more.
Pegasus Mail pioneered many features now taken for granted with other email clients, such as filtering and simultaneous access to multiple POP3 and IMAP accounts, and continues to out-perform many other email clients. However, the free distribution of Microsoft Outlook Express as a standard part of Microsoft Windows since Windows 98, and, the free distribution of Microsoft Outlook with PC magazines and then as an integral part of Microsoft Office from 1997 dealt significant blows to the market share of Pegasus and other email clients, from which many never fully recovered.
Also, with the widespread distribution of Microsoft Outlook, user expectations of the range of features an email client should offer (Outlook's email, newsgroups, calendar, etc., eventually as part of an integrated suite) created a negative first impression for many coming to an e-mail only program, no matter how good the email-only program was.
The drop in usage and funding slowed development and features which were scheduled to be included in version 4, such as scheduling were not implemented. Some of these features are scheduled for inclusion in version 5, in 2007.
From being the de-facto standard email client on Novell NetWare networks, Pegasus Mail, along with Eudora and others suffered a similar fate to Netscape Navigator when Internet Explorer was made free to distribute and also bundled with Microsoft Windows.
[edit] Temporary Suspension of Development of Pegasus Mail
In January 2007, Pegasus Mail it was announced that distribution and development of Pegasus Mail had ceased due to inadequate financial support from the sale of the (optional) user manuals. Later in the month, due to an avalanche of support from the user community, it was announced that development would resume, but with a change from freeware to donationware (and that the Mercury email server would change to a licence for fee for configurations with more than a (tbd) number of email boxes. A donation button was added to the website on 1 March 2007
[edit] 2007-01-03 Announcement
Changes to the status of Pegasus Mail and Mercury January 2007
Effective January 2007, development and distribution of Pegasus Mail and Mercury has ceased. We regret this decision, but ongoing difficulties with funding have forced it upon us.
Sites who have current support subscriptions will be fully supported until their subscriptions expire. We will be looking at developing migration tools to assist those sites in moving to other platforms or products.
It has been a privilege to be of service to the Internet Community for such a long period of time - I am only sorry that I am not able to continue doing so.
David Harris, January 3 2007.
[edit] 2007-01-08 Announcement
Addendum, January 8th 2007: I stress that this is purely a decision brought on by financial difficulty: if sponsors could be found to provide modest ongoing funding, I would be happy to continue developing the programs, and would even consider opening the source.
[edit] 2007-01-22 Announcement
It's up to you now
On January 3rd 2007, I announced that development of Pegasus Mail and Mercury would be ceasing because of funding problems. The result was an absolute avalanche of mail, phone calls, faxes and other communications wanting me to continue.
Let me say emphatically that it was never my desire to cease development, but maintaining and supporting these programs is a full-time, expensive process, and I simply cannot do it without sufficient ongoing reliable financial support.
In response to the torrent of messages, though, I have now decided to restart development and distribution of both programs. To make this possible, it will be necessary to restructure the way I fund them in some way that will attract an adequate and sustained level of financial support. I and my test team are still working out the exact details of the changes we will make, but in a nutshell, it is likely that Pegasus Mail will become "donationware", while Mercury will become fully licensed based on numbers of mailboxes, with a certain base number of mailboxes provided free of charge. Public discussion (on the Pegasus Mail and Mercury mailing lists) will be solicited before any final decision is made.
Pegasus Mail and Mercury have served the Internet for seventeen years: it's now really up to you, the community it serves, to decide whether it makes it to twenty years and beyond.
Please watch this space for further announcements.
David Harris,
Owner/Author Pegasus Mail and Mercury,
January 22nd 2007.
