Couple of weeks ago, I put this into my .muttrc my_hdr X-message-flag: Outlook is a breeding ground for viruses. See http://cws.internet.com/mail.html for alternatives This was based on info I read at http://www.rodos.net/outlook/ I got a couple hey-what-is-this messages (Hi! Jacque). Most, like Jacque, where professional and polite. Jacque and I even bantered back in forth via irc and email. But it was all in fun. The end of last week, I got some nasty email from outlook users. The "how dare I mess(!) with their email" type. Ironic. I know I never once flamed an outlook user about mailing me a .doc file or even an html-formatted email. When I did complain, I did it professionally and explained why they should not send MS specific messages (my explaination is attached) So, I changed my outlook hack to just posts to the tclug. Today I got 7 posts from TCLUG members complaining about my outlook hack. 1 (Thanks Jacque) was professional. The other 6 where nasty. To respond to one of the messages, I have never had sexy with my mother. :-P So, the point. This mailing list is for LINUX users, my little hack does not effect ANY MUA under Linux -and- it only effects 1 specific MUA; Outlook. So, shut off the hack? If so why? If not, why? As an aside, I'll probably shut off the hack because I like Jacque :-), but I'm interested in your opinions. In a world of IE only web sites, Windows only attachements, is this really that bad of a thing? -- Minneapolis St. Paul Twin Cities MN | Phone : (952)943-8700 http://www.mn-linux.org Minnesota Linux | Fax : (952)943-8500 Key fingerprint = 6C E9 51 4F D5 3E 4C 66 62 A9 10 E5 35 85 39 D9 -------------- next part -------------- You sent the attachment in Microsoft Word format, a secret proprietary format, so it is hard for me to read. If you send me plain text, HTML, or PDF, then I will read it. Distributing documents in Word format is bad for you and for others. You can't be sure what they will look like if someone views them with a different version of Word; they may not work at all. Receiving Word attachments is bad for you because they can carry viruses (see http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/acro.html). Sending Word attachments is bad for you, because a Word document normally includes hidden information about the author, enabling those in the know to pry into the author's activities (maybe yours). Text that you think you deleted may still be embarrassingly present. See http://www.microsystems.com/Shares_Well.htm for more info. But above all, sending people Word documents puts pressure on them to use Microsoft software and helps to deny them any other choice. In effect, you become a buttress of the Microsoft monopoly. This pressure is a major obstacle to the broader adoption of free software. Would you please reconsider the use of Word format for communication with other people? Converting the file to HTML is simple. Open the document, click on File, then Save As, and in the Save As Type strip box at the bottom of the box, choose HTML Document or Web Page. Then choose Save. You can then attach the new HTML document instead of your Word document. Note that versions of Word change in inconsistent ways -- if you see slightly different menu item names, please try them. To convert to plain text is almost the same -- instead of HTML Document, choose Text Only or Text Document as the Save As Type.