Changes...well, one notable one, anyway

Oh, yeah, lots of 'em on tap for 2009. (Although I've rejected one, opening a blog at deadmanwalking.blogspot.com....good thing, because it already exists, and boy it is strange*). I've been working on one tonight, and in the small scheme of things it's a big one for me: Just after the new year kicks in at midnight, I'll switch my default e-mail client from Eudora to Thunderbird. That's fairly momentous inasmuch as I've been using Eudora without interruption on any number of Mac and Windows platforms since 1992. It was great software -- always stable and well-adapted to my e-mail needs, nicely hackable for customization if you cared to do a little research, and even now it could do the job for a while longer. But with Qualcomm's decision more than two years ago to discontinue traditional development on Eudora, it's one of those apps that's quickly becoming non-compliant with current Internet mail standards, I'm trying to get everything open-source anyway, and it seemed like time. I don't like to be stuck on something that hasn't been supported for 26 months now.

Besides, I can always install the Penelope extension for Thunderbird to get some of Eudora's feel, since further development (which does seem to be at a crawl) will be based on Thunderbird. So, best of both words here, maybe. But I felt this still needed to be noted: Eudora has been utterly central to my computing experience for the better part of two decades, and the old-geek part of me kinda hates to leave it behind. But that's computing: Adapt or die.