4 ms·

The gist of this is that a new OpenBSD contributor couldn't figure out how to open a text email with their current email client. It was set to use HTML messages

The gist of this is that a new OpenBSD contributor couldn't figure out how to open a text email with their current email client. It was set to use HTML messages only. So this developer had to install an entirely new client just to handle messages. Therefore, open source communications must change to use a new system of some sort, presumably like GitHub. The rest of the thread is rightfully criticizing the claim for its absurdity.

smabie 6y ago
You totally can configure Outlook (and every other mail client I assume) to use text emails.
- manicdee 6y ago
  The problem is the way it comes out of the box. In Apple Mail you can "simply" open Preferences > Composing and set "Message Format" to "Plain Text". There is also the option for each message you write to Format > Make Plain Text But you have to know that the option exists before you can go looking for it.
hyperrail 6y ago
> The rest of the thread is rightfully criticizing the claim for its absurdity. When one reply to the thread says people who need HTML emails have nothing useful to say in their mails [1], and another reply says that mentioning the last name of Bill Gates will get your mail dropped by spam filters [2], I'm not sure which side(s) the absurdity is on. [1] https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=159847322304969&w=2 https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=159847322304969&w=2 [2] https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=159847734505942&w=2 https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=159847734505942&w=2
- Apaec 6y ago
  > Spam boxes are no longer very useful. Censorship is in full swing. If I were to mention the last name of the founder of Windows, this email would immediately go into the spam box of places like gmail. Is that true? Can anyone confirm?
mrbonner 6y ago
This reminds me of a sysadmin in one of my previous company tried to edit a Solaris config file in Word. He told me he couldn’t make it to work after he ftp it to the server. I looked at file and saw those CR characters and found out he used Word to edit it.
- justinclift 6y ago
  Sure not a *nix SysAdmin?
- btschaegg 6y ago
  You can still end up in such situations today without the absurdity of using word, if you're using Windows. I've wasted an hour or so this year trying to figure out why an instance of Microsoft's sshd port of OpenSSH didn't behave as configured. It took a while for me to realize that if you create/change the config files with Windows tooling, they will likely end up being encoded in UTF-16, which means that every second byte is a NUL character. If you have a C codebase expecting UTF-8 (like most UNIX-ish tools), that can lead to the config files just being ignored (as the tool likely hits a NUL before the first real character). In the case of sshd, you won't get any warnings or errors, either.
  - fomine3 6y ago
    PowerShell (before Core version) uses UTF-16 for default encoding, I wonder who is happy by this default encoding.
    - JdeBP 6y ago
      You need to know your history in order to understand this. Very briefly: Development on Windows NT began in 1989, three years before UTF-8 was even invented; and there was a difference of opinion between the ISO people and the Unicode Consortium over Unicode being 16-bit or 32-bit, with Joseph D. Becker famously publishing a paper in 1988 declaring that 16 bits were sufficient for Unicode ("with a safety factor of about four").
marcan_42 6y ago
The rest of the thread is going off on absurd tangents about CSS frameworks and setting up email servers. Old fart gatekeeping at its finest. I have a bunch of patches in Linux, I run my own email server, and I know how to send proper plain text emails... but that kind of attitude makes me want to stay away from the OpenBSD community, if I ever have a reason to interact with it. At least the LKML Torvalds shit-slinging tirades (which shouldn't happen, but still) are usually about code, not about meta stuff like this. This is just sad.
- nickysielicki 6y ago
  misc@ is a shitshow that doesn't reflect the professionalism of tech@ or the rest of the openbsd community.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

smabie 6y ago

You totally can configure Outlook (and every other mail client I assume) to use text emails.

manicdee 6y ago
The problem is the way it comes out of the box. In Apple Mail you can "simply" open Preferences > Composing and set "Message Format" to "Plain Text". There is also the option for each message you write to Format > Make Plain Text But you have to know that the option exists before you can go looking for it.

hyperrail 6y ago

> The rest of the thread is rightfully criticizing the claim for its absurdity. When one reply to the thread says people who need HTML emails have nothing useful to say in their mails [1], and another reply says that mentioning the last name of Bill Gates will get your mail dropped by spam filters [2], I'm not sure which side(s) the absurdity is on. [1] https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=159847322304969&w=2 https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=159847322304969&w=2 [2] https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=159847734505942&w=2 https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=159847734505942&w=2

Apaec 6y ago
> Spam boxes are no longer very useful. Censorship is in full swing. If I were to mention the last name of the founder of Windows, this email would immediately go into the spam box of places like gmail. Is that true? Can anyone confirm?

mrbonner 6y ago

This reminds me of a sysadmin in one of my previous company tried to edit a Solaris config file in Word. He told me he couldn’t make it to work after he ftp it to the server. I looked at file and saw those CR characters and found out he used Word to edit it.

justinclift 6y ago
Sure not a *nix SysAdmin?
btschaegg 6y ago
You can still end up in such situations today without the absurdity of using word, if you're using Windows. I've wasted an hour or so this year trying to figure out why an instance of Microsoft's sshd port of OpenSSH didn't behave as configured. It took a while for me to realize that if you create/change the config files with Windows tooling, they will likely end up being encoded in UTF-16, which means that every second byte is a NUL character. If you have a C codebase expecting UTF-8 (like most UNIX-ish tools), that can lead to the config files just being ignored (as the tool likely hits a NUL before the first real character). In the case of sshd, you won't get any warnings or errors, either.
- fomine3 6y ago
  PowerShell (before Core version) uses UTF-16 for default encoding, I wonder who is happy by this default encoding.
  - JdeBP 6y ago
    You need to know your history in order to understand this. Very briefly: Development on Windows NT began in 1989, three years before UTF-8 was even invented; and there was a difference of opinion between the ISO people and the Unicode Consortium over Unicode being 16-bit or 32-bit, with Joseph D. Becker famously publishing a paper in 1988 declaring that 16 bits were sufficient for Unicode ("with a safety factor of about four").

marcan_42 6y ago

The rest of the thread is going off on absurd tangents about CSS frameworks and setting up email servers. Old fart gatekeeping at its finest. I have a bunch of patches in Linux, I run my own email server, and I know how to send proper plain text emails... but that kind of attitude makes me want to stay away from the OpenBSD community, if I ever have a reason to interact with it. At least the LKML Torvalds shit-slinging tirades (which shouldn't happen, but still) are usually about code, not about meta stuff like this. This is just sad.

nickysielicki 6y ago
misc@ is a shitshow that doesn't reflect the professionalism of tech@ or the rest of the openbsd community.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]