[wellylug] Xandros
Bret Comstock Waldow
bwaldow at alum.mit.edu
Thu Mar 16 21:19:53 NZDT 2006
On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 20:10, Steve Macdonald wrote:
> I think I have worked out sending an email in plain text instead of html
> even thought I dont know the difference lol.
FYI: Hyper Text Markup Language
When you see a web page, you are seeing the rendering of a lot of instructions
that are grouped around and interspersed within what you are shown. From
colors to font choices, to graphics and animation - all these plus
instructions on how to display them make up an HTML page.
Plus programs, hidden programs. And hidden links. And instructions to YOUR
browser telling it what colors to use, software to load, banking info to
upload, etc.
These point to two of the most common reasons not to use HTML in a mailing
list. First, it's unnecessary bloat. We'd like to hear what you have to
say, and we don't generally need it in some color to hear it. Many mailing
lists are archived on the web for searching - one person's problem/solution
is then available for anyone else that has that problem. Mail in HTML takes
up more space on someone's server, and also thus takes longer to search
through.
As well, HTML includes options that can tell your computer to run code &
programs, download files, and other intrusive things. Devious HTML can do it
silently. It's a major attack vector. This is the second common reason
people speak against sending HTML mail. My mail program refuses to display
HTML, treating it as a security threat (it is) and asking me if I trust the
sender enough to display it as HTML.
In your browser, while viewing a page, select View - Source (maybe different
depending on what browser you use). That's HTML source code. That's what
you're sending when you send HTML mail.
Use the Xandros Network. It's designed to be as easy as the rest of the
distro, and you don't have the sort of knowledge yet you'd need to attempt to
graft any other software packages into that distro.
Cheers,
Bret
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