[plug] Easymail

[tlang@freeway.apana.org.au (Tony Langdon)]

It's 19 Mar 99  01:26:14,
We'll return to david.buddrige@mitswa.com.au and All's
discussion of [plug] Easymail

 da> 1. (easiest option).  See if we can get the program to run under wine.

Doesn't help a lot of 386/486 users though. :-(

 da> 2. Harder solution.  See if we can reverse engineer the thing
 da> (decompile or whatever) in order to figure out the protocol (I expect
 da> it wouldn't be too much different to a standard pop protocol (may have
 da> some odd tweaks here-and-there).

Might have to be careful for legal reasons.  I don't know what the law
says in relation to reverse engineering, but the extreme case was when
the PC BIOS was reverse engineered.  One team did the reverse
engineering, another (who had never seen the code) were given a set of
specs and told "write some code to do this".

Of course, with networked applications, there's always the option of
protocol analysis, and no sneaking a peek at the code. :-)

 da> 3. Long-term solution... send lots of emails to anyone/everyone in
 da> Telstra complaining loudly and insisting they release the protocol so
 da> we can write a linux client for it.  The reasons I would provide for
 da> their doing so are:
 da> 1. A Linux client would generate revenue for them (By enabling more
 da> customers to use the service).
 da> 2. A Linux client would cost them nothing.
 da> 3. There is no useful gain by having the protocol hidden.  (It's not
 da> like they're selling the product).

Worth a thought...

 da> Other suggestions:

 da> Releasing their Client as OSS.

 da> Benefits to them:

 da> 1. Free debugging.
 da> 2. Kudos with Large part of IT community (see Linux).
 da> 3. No loss to their business.
 da> 4. Increased use of their product which means $$ to them.

If I was in charge of Easymail sales, this would certainly be an
attractive option to me. :-)  (unless Telstra get a hefty fee from
anyone else distributing their client to promote their own product, such
as a modem or a PC).

Anything to get Easymail accounts would seem like a good idea...

.. No tagline - come back next message.
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