We have lift-off.
For those of us who have been waiting for a successor to Eudora 7.1.0.9 from 2006, our patience has been rewarded.
Some years ago, I had heard of a project called Hermes, and they have now delivered an alpha version called Hermes Aurora that does everything they promised.
Back when Hermes was first announced, they offered some security patches to allow those of us still using Eudora to continue doing so, but for a while we didn’t hear much.
The only development that came close was an email client called Pandora, which had similar functions, but the UI wasn’t quite as polished and the mailboxes and tables of content had to be converted to a new format. The backward compatibility that I wanted—my Eudora emails go back to 1994—just wasn’t there. Other than briefly trialling it, and concluding that (at the time) it was the only email client with customizable in- and outboxes, it never took over from my ageing Eudora.
Earlier this week, I was delighted to get a message from Hermes’ Nick Matavka, one of the leads on the project, that they were about to send out alphas to those people who had backed them on their fund-raising. Today, I installed Hermes Aurora alpha 28 on Windows 11, not really knowing what to expect.
I needn’t have worried. Functionally, the jump to Aurora 8 from Eudora 7 is actually smaller than the jump to Eudora 7 from Eudora 6. The environment is instantly familiar, while not 100 per cent identical. It read my eudora.ini and mailbox settings, so what opened up was where I last left Eudora 7 a few moments ago. At any point, if I didn’t like Aurora, I could close the program and boot up old Eudora. They read from the same mailboxes.
Spot the difference: obviously I had to blur out private information, but here are how Eudora and Aurora load up. Aurora was even sized correctly from the get-go. (This was one of the stock layouts for Eudora in v. 1, and I’ve stuck with it since.)
But it’s all those small things, the things under the bonnet, where Aurora brings Eudora up to date in the 2020s.
First of all, the security. Those patches that Hermes gave away a few years ago are coming to the ends of their lives. With Aurora you won’t need to worry: after I approved one TLS window that came up on my first outbound email, everything worked as normal.
Secondly, and this is the biggie: Unicode. Yes, Aurora supports Unicode. The biggest Achilles’ heel of Eudora has largely been solved, and while emails still display incorrectly in the preview pane and email window, Unicode works perfectly in the tables of content, even some emojis.
Finally, Unicode support within the traditional Eudora environment! This is from the table of contents of one of the folders I use.
It’s an alpha, so there are still a few areas that they need to refine. Email sizes don’t show correctly, and not all my customized buttons came across, but these are known bugs. I can live with them. And at least Hermes has owned up to them and acknowledges they are to be fixed. I’ve never had an alpha release before—the earliest I ever came in was beta—but these bugs are pretty minor. Some typographical stuff needs to be improved but I’ll file the report when I can show what I’d do in their shoes—otherwise it’s an annoying Andy Pipkin ‘Don’t like it,’ and I doubt the Hermes team needs that.
But for all Eudora users, get in now. Those patches aren’t going to last forever and here is the first real successor to Eudora 7. It’s not Thunderbird with Eudora buttons. This is the real thing. Find out more here.
PS.: In response to the commenter with the nom de plume of Eudora Welty, I realized you can view Unicode in the message window, by switching on the Microsoft viewer in the settings. It’s not an option I have ticked—I don’t like the type rendering—but here are the requested screenshots. The developers know about the subject line issue in the second window—a matter of choosing the right font for a future release.
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Thanks for sharing, Jack.
It’d be great to see a screenshot that displays a message body that has unicode in it, rather than just the Who and Subject columns in a mailbox.
Could you please share such a screenshot?
Thank you!
Unfortunately, I noted that ’emails still display incorrectly in the preview pane and email window’, so it is not perfect yet, but I believe they are working on it. But I am using Aurora now as my daily driver as I’ll take any incremental improvement, and I am impressed by how they are taking on user feedback.
E. W., if you are following the comments on this post, I have added the screenshots for you.
Thanks, Jack! That’s helpful.
You’re most welcome! I’ve since left the Microsoft viewer on. I still remember when the viewer made things quite horrid (being based around whatever Internet Explorer was on your computer) but the current one is more tolerable.
I contributed to the project and received email on Aurora and have downloaded all the files. But Alpha_28e.zip contains no install executable so I am not sure how to get Aurora installed over my existing (backed up) Eudora files. I cannot find any installation guidelines. Do you know if they exist? I’d like to upgrade but not at the risk of screwing up existing Eudora. Thanks.
Hi Scratchbaker, here’s how I did it, to the best of my recollection. First, don’t delete Eudora. For now, while Aurora is in alpha, your existing Eudora installation is a prerequisite for Aurora’s function.
Secondly, create a folder at, say, C:\Program Files\Aurora. Place the uncompressed contents of your ZIP file into there.
Thirdly, find Aurora.exe and create a desktop shortcut of that. You should be able to open Aurora and if you have your Eudora mailboxes in the standard places, Aurora should see them and you can instantly use the program.
The beauty of this set-up is that you can always go back to Eudora, though since installing Aurora I’ve only done it once. Aurora is now my daily driver (and as a result I’ll contribute more!).
Hi all. I became a donor to the Aurora project but it’s been several weeks and I still haven’t heard a reply about the software download. Of course, Indigogo was fast to send their website info but there’s been no messaging recently about the Aurora status. Anybody have any updates? How do I get my copy of the Alpha version to test out?
– Steve
[email protected]
Steve, from what I recall, I got a link after I donated. Do you have any contact information? I can write to Nick, who sent me my on-boarding email with the download link, and ask he gets in touch with you.
Hi, this is Nick Werner-Matavka, president of Team HERMES (the company that makes Aurora, or as we call it now, Eudoramail).
We use an automatic system that delivers license keys and links to the software in ~monthly batches; it sends from my personal mailbox, so replies to it are read by me or at least my secretary, but it would take an inordinate amount of work to send out links and licence keys individually to every contributor (and demand will only increase, given that we have an actual product that we are advertising).
This means that sometimes there is a lead time of up to a month between purchase and receipt of the product. While we regret the inconvenience this may cause, such are the business realities; we may eventually transition to a toolchain without this problem, it’s good enough right now, and that is the point of the system.
That said, customers *will* receive their purchased product, without fail; they *will* receive lifetime upgrades, without fail; and they *will* receive dedicated, one-on-one support via Signal instant messenger, without fail.
Thank you, Nick, I really appreciate your taking the time to add your comment. As I have Steve’s email address off-site, I’ll advise him that you’ve replied.
When will it run on Mac Silicon?
Hi Ulf, as far as I know, they are working on it, but it is proving far more complex than updating the Windows one.
Many thanks Jack! Good to hear, there will be many who would love to use it.
My pleasure! I also found this, which might give you more insight about Hermes’ plans for the Mac version:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hermes-eudoramail-8-0-the-final-stretch#/updates/all
Hi Jack, I was looking forward to getting my license and keys to the new Eudora email program in the past few weeks but I still haven’t gotten anything in my inbox. I appreciate your sending the info to Nick and his reply on this blog back earlier this month and I’m wondering if perhaps you could help facilitate this process since I don’t seem to have any direct way to contacting Nick.
– Steve
Hi Steve, let me reply to you on email privately and see what can be done.
I am starting to have my doubts about this….
As Eudora v7 user of decades, I was thrilled when I read your post. I donated immediately.
But the link I received when I donated took me back to the donations page…..
I tried sending messages to Nicholas Werner-Matavka, but received no response.
If this is legit, please tell me how I can download the software?
Perhaps I misunderstood how this works… Or have I been scammed?
Thanks~
Sorry, Jack!
I just saw the post of N. Edward Werner-Matavka at 08.08.2024 at 08.32 regarding when the software and related keys will be released to subscribers.
This explains what is happening. I just wish they had made this clear before I donated. I would still have donated, in hopes of being able to use Eudoramail on into the future, but it would have saved me a lot of hassle trying to figure out where and how to download the software.
I apologize for my confusion…
Thanks!
Dennis
PS: I am assuming that I will eventually receive not only a registration key but also a link to where the program can be downloaded, right? I should be asking Mr. Werner-Matavka this, but he has not responded to the messages I have sent….
will the new EudoraMail support Exchange accounts?
Robert X.: I have seen a couple of mass emails from Nick over the last week, so I assume you have received one, with download information?
Bob R.: sorry, I’ve never used Exchange so I can’t answer this.
They are thieves. I made the payment and did not receive any link to download the software. Never again!
Your experience is completely unlike mine, Francesco. See comment 10 above before accusing them of theft.
Yes I read. However, I don’t find these expectations fair. In any case, I will wait for their response. I can’t do anything else.
Francesco, did you not receive a message? It went out a few days ago. If you still haven’t, just tell me what name you effected the Indiegogo purchase under and I will make absolutely sure that you get it.
These are the names that purchased Eudoramail (formerly Aurora) within the last month: Kurt Glatte, Seth Livingston, Tony Olivero, Harry Binswanger, Roderic Seow, Tim Parsons, Jean Welter, Robert Xander, and Samir Hirani.
Robert, I expect you will have also received the message, customised, with your serial code and download link. I truly can do no more than this except to apologise for the inconvenience caused and make a note that purchases are being batched to a lead time of 30 days or fewer.
Hi, I only received indiegogo messages, but no links where to download the software. The name is Francesco Aloisio.
Francesco, there are five customers in the queue right now. You are one of them; you purchased one copy of the software at the price of Ten Dollars the day after the last batch went out (9th of September). Notwithstanding that you received a plausible explanation that licences are batched out as an efficiency measure (and subject to demand), you accused us of “theft” (though I surmise you meant “fraud”) on no basis other than allegedly undue delay. I expect that you master the Italian language better than the English, and so, to save readers the indignity of having to read my pippe mentali, I will continue in that tongue.
È il massimo della sfrontatezza mettere in discussione qualcosa di così vitale per un uomo come il suo onore, cosa che hai fatto per una somma che non vale un cazzo. La tua temerarietà, in un altro tempo e luogo, imporrebbe che la soddisfazione fisica sul campo dell’onore fosse richiesta, e quindi, con tutto il rispetto dovuto a uno stronzone della tua statura, ti chiedo umilmente a nome della società che rappresento di andare affanculo.
HOWEVER… the key words are “subject to demand”. We anticipate that licences (and links) will go out no later than 27 September, but this date may be pushed forward if enough interest arises.
Ciao, ammetto di aver sbagliato, e lo riconosco, per questo chiedo umilmente scusa. Le mie scuse per aver dubitato qualche istante che qualcosa non funzionasse e anche ovviamente alla tua persona. Mi permetto solo un appunto: tutto questo non sarebbe successo se nel vostro sito ci fosse stato un chiarimento in merito alla procedura. Ad ogni modo anche se la mia somma non vale un cazzo come affermi, non ho mai dubitato della bontà del progetto e per questo ti auguro un sicuro successo. Con amicizia, Francesco.
P.S. Hai ragione l’inglese non è una lingua che padroneggio spero che la traduzione automatica non faccia danni.
Hi, I admit I made a mistake, and I recognize it, for this I humbly apologize. My apologies for having doubted for a few moments that something was not working and also obviously to your person. Allow me just one note: all this would not have happened if there had been a clarification regarding the procedure on your site. In any case, even if my sum isn’t worth a damn as you claim, I have never doubted the quality of the project and for this reason I wish you sure success. With friendship, Francesco.
P.S. You’re right, English is not a language I master, I hope the automatic translation doesn’t do any damage.
This comment is for Bob R., who is asking if Eudoramail supports Exchange. Exchange relies on OAuth2 (Open Authentication version 2), which means that Eudoramail IN AND OF ITSELF does not support it, but an included plugin DOES. While this takes a little bit of setup, we will walk you through the process. Feel free to purchase knowing that you will not have a problem.
Mr Aloisio, your licence is on its way tomorrow. It will contain the word “HERMES” in the subject line.
Hello, confident look at the moment I have not received anything. Thanks and see you soon