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Pegasus Mail

pmail.com

243 pointsdanielovichdk92 comments

In 1996, our school had a break room with 30 DOS-based computers running Pegasus. Each computer would typically have a queue of 3-4 people behind the current user, all eager to check their mail. Most had no internet at home or very limited/expensive access.

Me and some friends were into programming. We would exit Pegasus to return back to the DOS prompt, and then write simple programs that persist in memory, so basically running in the background. Next, we'd reopen Pegasus and left the station.

The next in line would log in to their email and be busy with it for some 5 minutes after which our program would activate. It would draw random pixels on screen, mirror the entire screen vertically, output random tones on the beeper, all kinds of weird stuff to suggest that the machine is possessed.

We'd be hiding behind some column observing it and laughing.

Pretty pathetic, but good times.

I was in college in 2004 and for the engineering department email you had to log into a linux terminal and check your email with Pine. Most students by that time had windows computers with internet at home/dorm, I feel like it was intentionally difficult.

Did we study in the same university?

I was studying at a French engineering university and had that exact experience.

I loved learning all the weird command line tricks and Pine shortcuts :)

This was Engineering at University of Toronto

By that time I had Pegasus mail for windows in my work computer. I miss it sometimes.

My favorite gag-app would slowly drip letters off the screen

In high school we found we could use netsend to send messages to other computers; or every computer on the network at once. The rest of the school year was a back and forward where the sysadmins would try to block us and we would find ways around it. I think the final method that worked was writing vbscript macros inside Excel.

I found that trick and showed it to some friends... But it's hard to keep a secret, and somehow a larger non-friend group was using it to cheat in a computer-lab class. I was offended by the blatant cheating, and a little by the idea that certain people I didn't particularly like were profiting from what I'd found.

So I spoofed the system administrator's username (not hard on Win9x) and sent off a stern warning, which must've surprised them since suddenly all the messages stopped. :)

I installed a FTP server on the professors computer. It automatically shared your network disk once you logged in. All the COBOL assignments and solutions where there. Juvenile but hey....

We used to run Pegasus back when we had a Novel Netware server and it was brilliant. We later used Mercury Mail to host our own mail server on a regular desktop PC running Windows XP connected directly to the internet and offered staff a choice between Pegasus mail or Squirrelmail.

We eventually moved over to Gmail but I have fond memories of Pegasus mail in particular. A great piece of software made with a lot of love from the author.

Pegasus was, in the early 1990s, the first email system I used on microcomputers (and yes, with Netware). Prior to that, my email was on the university mainframe.

Good times! Before Eternal September!

Ah I remember using Pegasus Mail at a place running Novel too - I started there in 2003 but I think they must have started using something else in 2004.

does anybody remembers dialing up to a Unix server to uucp your organization’s emails and using Pegasus DOS to make it available thru netware?

What's new here? Are they shutting down?

Some discussion about their 30-year anniversary in 2020: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21975087

I posted it because of the netscape meteor thread, and the Pegasus logo hit me as one of my favourites in 90s. And it likewise a great mail client I used for some time.

Perfectly good reason, in my opinion! Seeing this brought back memories of reading PC Zone back in late '90s, one issue in particular which had a special on "Getting Online" where they laid out various browsers, email clients, (UK) ISPs, gaming services etc.

Earlier this year they released a new beta with better OAUTH2 support for Gmail users.

I love how the homepage loads in 24ms. Now this is the ideal website.

Exactly. Wish more sites and other bits of software followed this website's philosophy. Once you have that which is sufficient, anything more is waste.

unreadable on mobile is not sufficient

Desktop software. Also it's not unreadable.

I feel like there's an in-between we're not talking about, that would look a bit less like a shareware site from the early 00s, used more than 30% of my screen, and would work on my phone, but isn't the modern mess of megabytes of JS bundles for a static landing page. It could load in 35-50ms, too, I wouldn't mind.

"Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but nothing left to take away."

I value negative space in the same way that my dream is not to pile my plate with as much as I can at a buffet.

That's nice, but I value text that renders at a legible size more than I value leaving the majority of my screen empty. This layout isn't effectively using negative space, it's just wasting the entire screen. At least on mobile.

On mobile I just use two thumbs to zoom in to the column I want to read.

Blatant ableism against the mono-thumbed or thumbless.

The mono-thumbed can always double-tap the desired column, and thumbless folx can use their nose.

If only we had simple CSS rules to present things in a way that doesn't require one to do this

ᵀʰᵃᵗ’ˢ ʷʰʸ ᴵ ᵐᵃᵏᵉ ᶜᵒᵐᵐᵉⁿᵗˢ ˢᵐᵃˡˡᵉʳ ᵒⁿ ᵖᵘʳᵖᵒˢᵉ

How did you do that?

Unicode tricks. A quick Google search for "small text generator" will point you in the right direction.

Ḩ̸̻̹̝̯̮̖͚͔̙̙̰̞̳̩͎̻̅͛͆̌͑̈͗͐͆̀̇̈͋͜î̴̡̺̬͚̠̻̺̮̤̥̟̜͗͐͋͌̄̈͂̽̒́́̋͜͠͠s̵̻̗̰̒̈̿͌̅͗̽̈́͝ ̶̱̣̗͍̬̲̘̣͍̥̟̦̫̬́̈͗͂̾̍̉͊̌̚ͅą̸̤̤̳̺̹͆̆̍̾̌̿̅̽͌̔̿̒̎̂̉̈́͐̚͝ȑ̷͉̄̏́̔̒́̇̈́̑͆̀͌̎̌̆̕͝r̷̗̮͙̱̹̣̤͚͐͐̕į̷̨̡̡̛̛̹̱̹̹̺̬͔̬͇̎́͑̈͒̈́͌͛̐͂́̈́̚͜͝v̸̡̢̛̼̝̜̞̜͕̫̳̣̰̺̮͈̗̞̦̰̰͇͊̅̏͆̄̊͒͑̂̈́̉͛͋͛͘̕a̴̭̱̒l̵͖̗̳̪̯̣̗͋̋͋̑̎̌̌̓͆͒̑̆͐͊͝͝͝͠ ̶̹̫̪͓͈̘̳̈͜ͅw̵̬̪͖̭̲̪͝ͅạ̴̛̞͙͉̀́́̐͌̅͗͆̃̀͆̒̄̈́́̚ṡ̵̯͕́̓̈́͆̈̈͆̀͆ ̵̮̪̪̹̻̓̊̏̀̂̽̓̈́̄̏̅̊̊̎̂̚͘̚͠f̸͍͎͇̺̪̩̯̾ͅo̴̟̬͙͈̮͔̿̈́̈̑͊̀̽̎̕r̵̛͎̳̻̜̦̺̥̦̞͐͌̽́̔̈͌̂̀͛͌̓̉̔͋̆̏͊͘͝ţ̵̧̢̧̻̻̺͎͙̠͈̩̪̥͇̥̮̿̇̏̍̉̀̉͒͐̌̔̈́́̚̕͠o̶͖̤̜̟̱̖͓͍̖̲̮̮̫͎̜̫͕̖̼̕̕l̴̢̺͍̾̒̄̈͘ḏ̷̛̗͖̝͚͕͕̬̖̱̬̗̳̘̪̠̹͛̋̀̄̇̌͆̒̄̇̀̑͝ͅͅͅ.̴̨̨̢̦̜͕̞̬͍̹̟̩͖̥̗̹͉̼̹̊̎̓̒̏̋͜ ̸̡̼̝̥͔̯̠̤̰̘̙̗͓̫̦͙̎̈́̓͊̑̒̅H̷̡̻̖͍̜̞̥͓̩͈͓̿̓̋͠ͅë̸̹̠̗̼̂̀̋̃̑̓̓̇̚ ̷̧̡̛͈̮̞̙̳͂̍̔̽̑́̋̀̐̈́̾͌̅̎̂̔̿̚͝ͅc̵̥̗̲̬͓͈͕̘̱͖̜̭̖̱̳̏̎̎̀͊̎̾͊̊̑͘͜ȏ̵̲̖̼̘͔͚̰͍̜͔͚͘͝ͅͅm̶̢̝̬̹͉̞̩̗͛̓̅̎͊̌̕͘̚͠ȩ̷̯̦̫̤̲̞͒͒̒́̌̓̒̍̎͠s̴̡̧̢̱͔͈͈̩̖̥̖̻̻̣̗̭̣̞̥̝̤̮̖͛̽̈̌̎̇.̴̝̗͖̗͙̦̱̀͛̃͑̓̀̀͑͊̂̂̿̽̀̐͂́͘͘ ̶̡̢̟̼̻̣̠͓͕̦̲̗̩̹̔͆̒͝ͅ

You're free to call that "negative space", it's still 70% of my screen that's just blinding white, and 30% that's a tiny, non-responsive column layout. You call it perfect, I call it annoyingly empty and bad usability on mobile.

A lot of sites from https://512kb.club/ are like that.

Why does it need to take up more than 30% of your screen? And what's wrong with your phone? It works perfectly fine on mine.

Legibility and usability. Like many old sites this one uses small fonts, small elements, and has tiny targets. Especially when working on a large display. I make liberal use of Firefox's zoom feature to compensate, but better defaults don't hurt.

And yes it works on a phone as you can easily zoom in, but inclusion of responsive design, e.g. moving the sidebar to a footer, and use larger fonts would significantly improve legibility and usability. This is not incompatible with a simple and fast-loading site.

I guess we have very different definitions of "works perfectly". Sure, the page displays as intended, if that's what you mean. Tiny 3 pixel high links are neither accessible nor very usable.

If you are looking for Pegasus mail on a mobile device, I think you might be a wee bit outside of the target market. And btw, Pegasus is a shareware site from the 1990s.

Why do you make the assumption that people running, or interested in running Pegasus, would not read things on their phone?

But...tables!!!

This. It's refreshing to use a website that doesn't need to run an obscene amount of JS everywhere.

This is peak performance.

I wish it had some screenshots though, which would slightly increase time to onload, although it shouldn't delay loading of the text content.

Here you go:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pegasus+mail+screen+captures&iax=i...

Ah the old nerds pretending UI just doesn't matter.

I think that's an unfair strawman, because they are saying that UI does matter, only that their opinion of "modern UIs" is that they are often worse, not better.

Someone mentioned an "in between" option and that's where I personally tend to land as well. A lot of modern websites are so media and JavaScript heavy that they take a long time to load, have many layout shifts and feel sluggish when you use and navigate them. That is not good user experience.

On the flip side, I think there is a lot to say for "responsiveness", font choices and media that helps the user experience. I am a minimalist, but legibility of copy and making intelligent layout decisions relative to the viewport size are "modern" techniques that can greatly aid UX when understood and applied properly.

I don't know what you're talking about. That's a beautiful, clean, and clearly-organized site.

UI matters, that's why we're praising it.

UI matters, and modern UIs are horrible

I believe you. Many older ones are better, especially if the documentation is sufficient.

Welp we're not going back so. Get right or get left. They're great for me.

While I did use it maybe 25 years ago, I wanted to see some screenshots to get reminded of what it looks like. No screenshots. Maybe the manual? No pdf to download.

The site leaves a lot to be desired, but it loads fast.

Exactly what I tried to do. Then just fall back to duckduckgo: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=pegasus+mail&iax=images&ia=...

I believe that's how the author earns a living: the software is free (and has online help), but the manual costs money.

Oh, ok, I thought it was bundled with the download.

I went looking into this a bit and TBH I think I'm out of date.

I think he sold printed dead-tree manuals.

Now PDFs are bundled:

https://www.pmail.com/manuals.htm

https://www.pmail.com/sundry/pmlinux.htm

> 2005

> I am now favourably disposed to the idea of moving towards Open Source, but have to overcome some important issues before I go down that track. I am actively considering the issues and hope I can find workable solutions (such as a large, friendly, wealthy sponsor) in the not-too-distant future.

> 2021

> there simply isn't a way forward with this idea, however admirable it may be and however inclined I might be to undertake it. The reality is that the programs are now so big and my resources so limited, that it simply isn't feasible for me to consider a true open source migration without specific, guaranteed funding and a strong, dedicated team of highly-skilled developer volunteers.

This is very sad.

Since I couldn't find any screenshots on their website and I wanted to recall what it was like (having used it for a time) this is the best I could find.

http://campus.bethlehem.edu/centers/computer_center/Pegasus_...

There is almost a "brutalist" clarity to Windows 95 user interfaces that I miss.

Those move and copy icons, omg just love them!

Just so utilitarian!

This was my first email program back in the 90s. Like others, there was a Novell Netware involved. Fond memories that I had forgotten until I was sitting outside my house in Ballard(Seattle) and the neighbor was walking the dog. Spent a lot of time sniffing my trees/bushes.

Neighbor said: don't mind, she's just gotta check her pee-mail.

I'm sure they were confused when I fell out laughing for 5+ minutes.

A similar desktop email client for Windows is The Bat! [0]. Does anyone have experience with both and can provide a comparison?

[0] https://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/

Haven't used either in 15 years, but I always preferred the bat! back in the day, client was faster and was bullet proof, also at the time it did a better job handling vCards. Both had irregularities with rich format rendering, but that was a symptom of the time and the fragmented closed sourced rendering engines.

I moved to Opera's M2 client as soon as it became available and it was my preference even though it only supported plaintext.

Pegasus Mail Newsflashes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31413891 - May 2022 (3 comments)

Pegasus Mail, 30 Years On - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21975087 - Jan 2020 (46 comments)

Pegasus Mail - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14144731 - April 2017 (49 comments)

Pegasus Mail: Twenty years and counting... - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2115730 - Jan 2011 (12 comments)

Wow, I feel old. I implemented Pegasus mail way back in 1993 or 1994, had forgotten about it since.

Pegasus Mail and Linux / Open Source

https://www.pmail.com/sundry/pmlinux.htm

David Harris Owner/Author, Pegasus Mail and Mercury Systems, April 20th 2005.

I first heard about Pegasus Mail on ScreenSavers with Leo Laporte. Someone wrote in and Steve Gibson suggested it. Fond memories!

I'm a big fan of Becky! Internet Mail which has a similarly oldschool aesthetic: http://www.rimarts.co.jp/becky.htm

On Windows I've used Calypso email client which was pretty awesome, but now it's pretty hard to even find a screenshot of it:

https://images.sftcdn.net/images/t_app-cover-l,f_auto/p/b57c...

Also there is a really good e-mail client The Bat, but not sure how it stands for today's HTML-first e-mail world. (I'm not using Windows anymore, and for corporate it's unfortunately Outlook, not my choice)

What a blast from the past. I remember using pegasus back in the days. I loved it, not sure why I stopped using it. I guess gmail search function?

I fondly used Eudora Mail back in the 90s and absolutely loved it. I tried Pegasus Mail as well, but it simply didn't resonate with me.

Eudora was too resource heavy for some machines. That's where pegasus shined.

The older Mac versions of Eudora were pretty lightweight. You could even run it on a Mac Plus with MacIP over LocalTalk.

I ran Pegasus until I switched to Linux and used XFMail [1]. It was a great client, and my parents continued to use it until they eventually switched to Thunderbird.

I eventually gave up on imap / pop3 clients and strictly use webmail today.

1. https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/XFmail

Why do you use webmail? I don't get the point.

There's no client setup and I can access it from just about anywhere.

I used to optimize for the same scenario. But I realized that I very rarely use random machines that aren't my own. Plus my habits shifted even further once I started relying on my own (intentionally) private services accessible over Tailscale. These days I'm uncomfortable logging into anything of importance on a public machine without using a one time password or at least dual factor authentication, which isn't always possible.

I use email services which support U2F, such as yubikey. Thankfully that is supported in most environments today.

I adored Pegasus for a very long time in the 90s with a POP3 backend and then UW-IMAP running on various SUN boxes. It eventually got overtaken by Thunderbird but I'll always remember its speed and power compared to the horror of console email at one extreme and Outlook at the other extreme.

Surprised that's still around. Had a fairly large airgapped Pegasus deployment (1000 seats) on Netware back in 1998.

Here's a shout out to David Harris, author of Pegasus Mail.

IME, he's an engaged and responsive developer who gave folks enterprise e-mail when most enterprises didn't yet realise they needed it.

And we purchased manuals (this was the funding mechanism) every year. I'm not sure how many folks did.

I loved Pegasus back in the day. I'm happy to see this recent wave of nostalgia here.

The Bat, Pegasus and the Becky were three favourite clients at our University.

Till GMail and the browser based email thing took over. I wonder if we will be remembering gmail and the browser clients with such fondness a few years from now.

First job we had a whole school district running Pegasus.

Well, about half did. The rest use the mail client in Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer. Was it called Outlook Express yet?

No air conditioning anywhere, almost everyone on dial-up...ugh

Pegasus Mail was actually the first email client I used, followed by Eudora.

For me Eudora was the first client I installed. They had a unicorn logo & even came as a Lite edition. Fun times those were, in early 2000s (along with ICQ, ACDSee32, & Quake3)

https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-eudora-email-client-sou...

It was a great e-mail client in its day and it's still useable today.

Are there any other modern email server and client programs you'd recommend?

It's pretty special seeing something created in Dunedin, NZ on here

I used Pegasus on my 486sx25 on windows 3.11. It worked like a charm. I am glad it's still active.

my favorite part of this read comes early on (ahem, clears throat): "I’m not going to spend too long" ~ proceeds to introduce "The Sales Pitch" for several paragraphs <3 in any case, im sold, will check this out next hackathon

I loved it - I used to run it in the 90s.

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