Dialup Is Outdated, Eudora on Macintel, Improving Tiger on Low-end Macs, and More

• Join the 21st Century
• Eudora Working Fine on Macintel
• Intel Migration Woes
• Eudora on Intel Macs
• Helping Tiger Run Better on Low-end Hardware
• WD MyBook Home External Hard Drive Causing Kernel Panic

Join the 21st Century

From Dru:

Charles -

So the problem with the migration is not the new Intel Mac, but lies within yourself (and your outdated software).

Dialup!?!? Surely you jest. I suppose you still have that AOL account, too! :-D

Get with the program, join the 21st century.

Dru

Hi Dru,

I infer that you're a city boy. ;-)

Believe it or not, there is still a sizable proportion of the world, including many locales in North America, where broadband service is not available, and I live and work in one of them - specifically a beautiful but out-in-the-boonies region of Nova Scotia, Canada, and the best service I can get here is dialup from one provider over ancient and not terribly well-maintained copper telephone lines and an analog local switching station that gives me 26,400 bps throughput on good days.

Canada is actually better connected than the United States with 85 Internet users per 100 people, putting it in fifth place globally compared with a connectivity rate of 73 users per 100 in America, ranking 11th worldwide, but broadband is still not available to some 15% to 20% (it's improving) of homes and businesses in the province.

When it's available, I'll have it.

As for software, philosophically I'm inclined to use what works best for me. I'm not averse to switching to more current software if it will do as good or better job than what I've been using, but I bridle at taking productivity and convenience hits in order to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak.

LEM publisher/editor Dan just mentioned to me that he is holding off switching to Intel because while 99% of his key apps will work, losing Claris Home Page is something he's not yet ready to accept.

Charles
(Unapologetic Foot-Dragger)

Eudora Working Fine on Macintel

From Mark Rushton:

Hello again, Charles,

FWIW, Eudora 6.2.4 works just fine on my Unibody 2.0 GHz MacBook (well, fine in that although from time to time I get the SPOD for a few seconds, and maybe a crash every month or so, it is able to send and receive across multiple email accounts, though I do not use dialup).

I was surprised that in your mention of the Eudora problems and alternatives, you didn't update your readers on Odysseus. I jumped aboard the pre-purchase beta offer 'way back when, but haven't looked at it lately to see if there is a stable release available as yet.

Cheers,

M

Hi Mark,

I wish I was getting that sort of reliability with Eudora in Leopard on my G4 PowerBook!

It works great in OS X 10.4 but is cranky and slow with both send and receive over dialup, which I deduce is the problematical issue in general - and my ISP (and sole alternative), Bell Aliant Sympatico, in particular. Their Port 25 block on SMTP is a major pain. Gmail's SSL seems to work around it, as does the Lavabit email service, but nothing else, and in Leopard, Sympatico's own native SMTP server refuses to work, although it's fine with Eudora when booted from Tiger.

However, so far I've been unsuccessful in sending email via any service from Eudora with the Intel MacBook despite protracted configuration battles and several application reinstalls, fresh start settings, and so forth. My provisional theory is that the Leopard developers opted to throw dialup users under the bus, at least by neglect.

I haven't checked in on Odysseus since 1.0 beta 9. I just looked, and I see it's up to beta 15 (February 21) so I must take another gander. The deal-breaker for me up to beta 9 was the lack of ability to check email accounts individually, which is absolutely vital when you're on dialup and something I would not be satisfied living without under any circumstances. (Update: Unhappily, Odysseus 1.0 Beta 15 still can't check accounts individually.)

Odysseus also has (had?) problems with sending mail through the Sympatico server over my connection.

Charles

Intel Migration Woes

From Rudi:

Charles -

Nice article on your migration to Intel and the pitfalls that ensue when your workflow depends on very specific applications.

I knew from your first mention of migrating to Intel that Eudora would be a sticking point. My partner is a devout Eudora user (part of this due to the interface, most of it due to the fact that a good friend of hers works for Qualcomm and was on the Eudora project "back in the day"), and she's been toying with Odysseus. However, her needs aren't the same as yours (i.e., she doesn't have email account "bloat" - I do, but I now redirect most of my email addresses to this one), so she's willing to move to another client if need be.

That said, Odysseus runs quite well on my Intel Mac (had to test for a few holdouts at my workplace who are willing to drop off our support grid for the sake of personal workflow), beating the snot out of the Penelope drek that Qualcomm and Mozilla.org are trying to pass as "Eudora 8." It seems to finally work well with SpamSieve, as well, which is an essential requirement for any stand-alone client I use.

Looks like beta 15 of Odysseus is about to hit the street, so that should be worth a try. I'm not sure about the portability of the mailboxes - that's not a requirement I've needed.

But I know we'll never agree on the email front (to me, Eudora is an idea whose time has come and gone for myriad reasons - then again, I can still GREP my way through Pine on a terminal...), so.... ;)

As far as a graphics editor is concerned, I'd look at a solution like Pixelmator, which is a wonderful app for the price and is Intel native. I've found Pixelmator to be almost equal to Photoshop in function, and certainly more efficient in execution. Frankly, it runs circles around Color It, so I'd give it a whirl.

TypeIt4Me should work fine in the Intel realm, though I've moved on to TextExpander, which I find much more flexible - still a license holder of TI4M, though.

Good luck with the rest of the migration - it can be devilishly tough to retrain workflows to new interfaces, for sure. And I hope you get broadband to your area soon, because I don't think I could stand dialup at this point. :)

Cheers from DC!

Rudi

Hi Rudi,

Thanks for the comments.

Like your significant other, I am a great fan of the Eudora user interface (or non-interface - I even keep the toolbar turned off) and will give it up very grudgingly. I haven't given up on classic Eudora yet, which is one reason I haven't switched to the MacBook for production, but I do have to take into consideration that Eudora is a lame duck and that it probably doesn't make a lot of sense to invest a great deal of time (always short) and effort into coaxing it to work, especially since I am obliged to work around the added complication of a slow dialup Internet connection for who knows how long yet.

I'm going to have to resign myself to the fact that the transition to Intel is going to be fraught with vastly more angularities and aggravations than say the migrations from 680x0 to PowerPC or from the Classic Mac OS to OS X. For example, I can manually drag mail archives that were created in Eudora 1.x on my old Mac Plus running System 6 into Eudora 6.2.4 running under Leopard 10.5.6 on my PowerBook, and they open. Odysseus may turn out to be the key for email (I'm downloading beta 15 as I write this - it'll take an hour and 45 minutes). Hopefully they've added the ability to check individual accounts separately.

Actually, I've been using Pixelmator since the first final version was released and have enjoyed tracking its progress. I got version 1.4 down this week. I agree that it's beginning to give Photoshop Elements a run for its money, but it's not quite there yet.

I use Pixelmator and PSE regularly for stuff that requires their power and deep feature sets, but I still find that Color It! (which I now have working nicely on the MacBook :-) ) tends to be my first resort for stuff it will do, which is quite a bit, and it does some things more satisfactorily than either of the newer apps. It's also lightning-fast, has a lithe, non-ponderous feel to it that I prefer, and drag & drop image editing works better than with any other graphics app. I've used. Pretty cool for a program that dates back in interface and function conventions to the days of 68020 processors.

Charles

Eudora on Intel Macs

From Michael:

Charles,

I've been using Eudora (6.2.4) on my MBP for over two years now, through Tiger and Leopard. The only problem I had previously heard about was with Eudora playing some sound files when mail comes in. Since I'd previously turned off notification sounds anyway, I don't know if this would be a problem or not.

I only have 3 accounts set up, not 22, and I realize that may be a huge difference. But I would still hold out hope that this would work for you!

By any chance, have you talked to Tonya Engst about this? While she publicly (and painfully) switched to Apple Mail a year or two ago, she might be able to tell you how she kept Eudora going while switching computers.

Good luck,
Michael

Hi Michael,

Thanks, I haven't noticed any obvious issues with multiple accounts configuration on the Intel machine. I'm more inclined to suspect that the problem for me is the known (from running Leopard on my G4 PowerBook) problems Leopard seems to have with either my slow dialup connection (26,400 bps on good days), Sympatico.ca's Port 25 block and generally obtuse SMTP server (can't send through it in Leopard from the PowerPC Mac in Leopard, although it works fine in Tiger), or a combination thereof.

My problem right now is time. I don't have any. Getting to bed at 4 a.m. or later the past few nights, and it's catching up with me, so have been taking the path of least resistance and getting along (quite contentedly) with the 1.33 GHz PowerBook, which is still a superb platform. I don't gainsay that it may be possible to get Eudora 6.2.4 working on the MacBook, but I'm wondering if the investment in time is justifiable given the likelihood that Snow Leopard will administer the coup-de-grace to this fine old piece of software.

I am, of course, familiar with Tonya Engst's excellent writing, but am not acquainted with her.

Charles

Helping Tiger Run Better on Low-end Hardware

From Roger:

Hi Charles,

I just read your Tiger hardware article (What's the Minimum Mac or 'Book for Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger'?) and have a suggestion for the lower end of what you have recommended. I personally have no use for Dashboard and always strip it out of lower-end Macs. I also remove languages and only install the printer drivers that I need. Doing this lets Tiger run about the same as Panther on lower-end hardware.

Doing this Tiger Lite makes OS X 10.4.11 quite usable on a 500 MHz iBook with max memory. This even makes a 10 gig hard drive somewhat useable with about 6 gig free after the OS install.

The software for removing languages is Monolingual, and you can use Bye Bye Dashboard or other similar software to turn off Dashboard.

Best wishes
Roger

Hi Roger,

Thanks for the tips and links.

Another solution for the Dashboard is one I use to keep it disabled unless I really want it (not often) is DashQuit, a freeware add-on - works well.

Charles

Editor's note: I've had great luck with is Delocalizer 1.1, which works with OS X 10.2 and later. DisableTigerFeatures is a good tool for turning off Spotlight and Dashboard, which I do on low-end G3 Macs. dk

WD MyBook Home External Hard Drive Causing Kernel Panic

From Lee:

Hi Charles

MyBook Home 500 GB drive listed 10.3.x compatible.

1. Will not go into Trash even with all applications off.
2. Is causing kernel panic on two different Macintoshes: PowerBook Pismo and Blue and White G3 (OS X 10.3.9)
3. In trying to remove Button Manager, neither backed up .dmg files will open. An attempt to find an uncorrupted copy on your website proved fruitless. Please post Button Manager app in an accessible location
4. Would the firmware update or the turbo drivers help. Listed as being for OS X 10.4.x or 10.5.x. This provided I can remove Button Manager and Drive Manager

I seem not to be alone with these problems.

AppZapper requires being able to find the application. Don't know about Yank.

Thanks
Lee S.

Hello Lee,

I hadn't heard of this issue and can't shed much light on what might be happening. Perhaps some of our LEM readers will be able to. Let us know if you get any useful help from Western Digital.

Charles

Editor's note: The Western Digital site says the MyBook Home drives require Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later, while the Mac Edition simply requires Tiger or Leopard. The WD website doesn't list any of its external drives as compatible with 10.3.x. There are widespread reports of problems with the Button Manager software. dk

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