To put this back on the list, but not annoy Christopher He has replied off list to a request for help in replacing my eMail client as follows.

I use something called glimpse for this (it's on the CDs)--it's sort of a small search engine (more powerful than grep) for collections of text files. I know of others who swear by a mail client called tkrat which has a very clever virtual folder concept that maintains a searchable database of headers, bodies, etc. Drawback is that not a console-based program but you might find that a plus if you have used netscape for 5 years and like that sort of thing. It's also on the CDs but there are screenshots and other info here: http://www.tkrat.org/tour.html

A search for glimpse in YaST produces no 'hits' ( case insensative, including descriptions ). I've had a look at tkrat, but I get a little annoyed when 'sales litrature' describes as 'unique to them' things that I have been doing for years in other packages. I've not ruled it out, but I suspect it will have some of the same problems I would like to remove. Over the last few months, I have moved all of my documentation management to a Linux machine as the Windows XP machine was simply a pain with all it's differences ( I might even kill MSDN membership this year <g> ). Since I was having to remember to do things differently between XP and the rest of the system, I decided the differences may as well be practical, i.e KDE3. Having taken the plunge, I am very happy with what I am finding. Open Office fills the gap to Windows nicely, and I am reliably informed that the CD will plug the remaining gaps. So the next step is to move my eMail database from Netscape 4.7x. I've done this once - to Netscape 6.0 - and it lasted 4 hours <g> Netscape 6 eMail STILL has some way to go to restore all of the 4.7x facilities. SO the requirements. glimpse sounds nice since I would like to dump the lots of eMails in one file approach and return to individual files in standard directories. Then even grep could be used to search. So where is it hidden. The first problem is how do I get the existing archive into a usable format? The second is which client? Just to add to the complexity I currently use a windows package called VPOP so my wife and kids eMails are split off first, then I use Wingate for shared internet access. I am in a position where I would be happy to dump the W2k internet server in favour of a Linux machine - once I can sort out this area. Any suggestions. In particular, could the StarOffice database facility come into play here? -- Lester Caine ----------------------------- L.S.Caine Electronic Services