This week I intend to switch from my beloved Eudora (which I've used for more years than I can count) to the OS X mail.app. In part for the spam filtering that mail provides, in larger part because it's hard for me to justify spending the $ on yet another Eudora upgrade when mail is free.
Spent yesterday cleaning out my various mailboxes (the inbox alone had nearly 3000 messages accumulated, and that doesn't count all the messages in the 15+ other mailboxes that things get filtered into). When I told Gerald what I was doing, he asked why I didn't just start fresh with the new mail program, and leave the old stuff archived in Eudora if I needed it.
Hmmm.
Why not, indeed? Why does the thought of that trouble me so? I think it's because I have such a sense of "living in" my computer. Switching the environment that I spend so much of my time "in" is a lot like moving. As an inveterate packrat, who's also quite mobile (or has been, anyway), I tend to see moving as my opportunity to clean house. Why keep what you're not willing to carry? I suppose I see the mail program the same way. If I'm not willing to transfer it to the new program, or archive it to a file, should I really be saving it at all?
So despite the appeal of starting up mail "clean," without the accumulated detritus of years of conversations, I'm sticking with plan A. Today will be cleaning day. And it's fun, actually, since I get to sift through all the messages that at some point I thought were worth keeping after I read them. Particularly enjoyable are the messages my mother has sent me after spending days with the boys--she writes beautifully (hey mom, why not start a grandmother blog, to keep all those anecdotes in?).
All in all, not a terrible way to spend a gray, damp, cold November day here in Rochester, while the kids are on school and I'm on vacation.
Liz -
In July I migrated from Entourage to Mail.app. Like you, I don't throw anything away. My email archives go back years. Usually 2 years online and I've got virtually everything else offline -- all accessible in a Filemaker database.
[here's a tool that will allow you to do the same: http://versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=8872&db=mac ]
So when I went to Mail.app, I still wanted the last year or so of filed email (in my Entourage folders) to be accessible and searchable within mail. So to minimize the need to open Entourage. Thanks to several shareware applications and a few hidden applescripts in the Mail Scripts folder in OS X, I made the migration fairly smoothly.
During Doc's terrible experience with losing mail (he's been on Eudora too) i recommendedthis utility to help in a potential migration away from Eudora to Mail.app
http://versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=13341&db=mac
I also have used the .Mac account for simply backing up the Mail, iCal, and Address book in a very simple, slick format using iSync -- also works with your Palm Device if you have one. the $99/annual price is tough to justify given you have server space at RIT, but the integration with iPhoto, iCal, BackUp and even s simple FTP interface with iDisk is very cool. Had Doc used IMAP and/or .Mac he'd have all his mail available. But hindsight is -- well -- hindsight. Hope some or all this info is helpful. Good luck. Mail.app is not perfect, but I'm getting used to it.
/allan
Hey, I moved from Eudora to Mail too - I *love* the spamfiltering, I really and truly barely get spam these days, it's amazing. I also really like how Mail integrates with my address book and with iChat.
Mail seems kind of slow though. Admittedly I have a slowish machine. But I've found changing between folder's quite slow, especially when I have folders with lots of messages in them - and in Eudora I had folders with 4000 messages in htem which worked OK. Mail seems ot want to re-index them all each time I open the folder, though, which is stupid. So I've ended up using Mail differently to the way I used Eudora. I delete MUCH more, and I don't filter as much automatically, and I tend to pile stuff into just one big archive when it's dealt with, and I hope never to see it again.
I imported everything from Eudora, but ended up deleting most of it eventually. Realistically I so rarely use my mail archives...
Good luck with the move!