Thunderbird 3 is a pain in the neck

[Amedee Van Gasse (u2s)]

On Mon, March 1, 2010 15:44, Liam Proven wrote:

> JOOI: Exchange Server uses a heavily-modified embedded version of the
> MS Access Jet database as its storage engine.

I've heard this before, it probably holds a kernel of truth.

>> OE has a file for each mailbox. I am afraid that it is not at all like
>> the Exchange mail store and so there is a chance that it is
>> foxpro-based.
>
> I've never heard this before, but it's possible. FoxPro was famed for
> its speed; so, remarkably enough, was Outlook Express, and MS Internet
> Mail & News before it. (For many years, the OE binary was still called
> MSIMN.EXE.)
>
> The "Outlook" part of the name was just a branding exercise, trading
> on awareness of the corporate client. There is no relationship between
> them in the code. (Compare: "Javascript" vs "Java" - no relation.)
>
> It could be that the MS Internet team - which used to be quite
> separate from anyone else - wrote MSIMN using FoxPro, or at least,
> part of it using FoxPro. I've just never heard previously that this
> was so.

It's possible (even likely) that the file extension is just a coincidence.