[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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