# Early 2000s email clients such as pronto (2024-02-16) **URL:** \ **Category:** breadcrumbs\ **Created:** [February 16, 2024, 8:00am UTC](https://pluralist.net/t/early-2000s-email-clients-such-as-pronto-2024-02-16/79 "2024-02-16T08:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![delyan](https://pluralist.net/user_avatar/pluralist.net/delyan/32/245_2.png) [@delyan](https://pluralist.net/u/delyan)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 8:00am UTC](https://pluralist.net/t/early-2000s-email-clients-such-as-pronto-2024-02-16/79/1 "2024-02-16T08:00:00Z")
A bit of nostalgia today. There were many native Windows email clients in the late 90s and early 2000s. These were days of densely packed interfaces. Focus was on offline work - connect, send/receive, disconnect. Software was released in downloadable versioned binaries from FTP servers, such as ftp://ftp.prontomail.com/p96v305.exe. * * * ### Pegasus Mail ([pmail.com](https://www.pmail.com/)) This email client was [created](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_Mail) by David Harris in 1989 in Dunedin, New Zealand. [Read the history **here**](https://www.pmail.com/history.htm). > It dates from the time when the Internet was a community rather than just a highway - a time when people helped each other without worrying too much about who was going to pay for it… > I wrote a simple e-mail program in my own time and made it available on the network: I was quite surprised to find that people liked it. ([src](https://web.archive.org/web/20010411130144/http://www.pmail.com/history.htm)) I first ran into Pegasus Mail at an Internet Club in Stara Zagora in 1995. (Internet Clubs were something like bars, where you could go and use a computer - to play games with friends, called LAN parties, or just surf the internet.) Here are a few screenshots (and their sources) to show what Pegasus Mail looked like (using native Windows UI). ![pmail1](https://pluralist.net/uploads/default/original/1X/332c715d5a2c7ec849801da4ab866061be0b7fd1.gif) ([src](https://fileforum.com/detail/Pegasus-Mail/999671238/1)) ![image](https://pluralist.net/uploads/default/original/1X/3537f79563165f58c27f207535572bbf457a9155.jpeg) ([src](https://pegasus-mail.en.lo4d.com/windows)) [Daniel Tobias](https://dan.tobias.name/) writes about what it takes to [**configure Pegasus Mail**](https://mailformat.dan.info/config/pegasus.html) and has some great context on how much legacy is buried in what we call email today. * * * ### Pronto! Pronto! was another email client from the early 2000s. I enjoyed the design of it, but sadly screenshots and history are hard to find. The domain was `prontomail.com` and some sites point to the download location for this to have been `ftp.prontomail.com/p96v305.exe` From [Robert Steele](https://www.andrews.edu/~steele/)’s [page](https://web.archive.org/web/20060915204447/https://www.andrews.edu/~steele/winsock.cgi?95mail) (real treasure): > [Pronto 96](https://web.archive.org/web/20060915204447/ftp://ftp.prontomail.com/p96v305.exe) > Version 3.05 > Date 12/15/96 > Size 2406 Kb > [Location ftp://ftp.prontomail.com/p96v305.exe](https://web.archive.org/web/20060915204447/ftp://ftp.prontomail.com/p96v305.exe) > Description A good mail client that comes close to Pegasus Mail’s features but not price > Status Commercial Software - $69. Free 30 day evaluation > Company [Commtouch Software](https://web.archive.org/web/20060915204447/http://www.commtouch.com/commtouch/) > Information [The Pronto 96 Page](https://web.archive.org/web/20060915204447/http://www.commtouch.com/commtouch/products/pronto96/pronto96.html) > Also Available Windows 3.x version * * * ### Eudora ([eudora.com](https://web.archive.org/web/20020604065056/http://www.eudora.com/products/)) Eudora was one of my favorites. It was beloved by many faculty members at the university I attended too. ![image](https://pluralist.net/uploads/default/original/1X/f5676a25eba514608978bd9cc902e6ca34a9d0ee.jpeg) ([src](https://eudora.en.uptodown.com/windows)) ![image](https://pluralist.net/uploads/default/original/1X/dd474fe28ef24f8b0b1e4fa59a78064cbc04390e.jpeg) ([src](https://www.tenforums.com/browsers-email/207988-eudora-7-closing.html)) * * * ### Outlook Express Outlook Express had minimalist, clean, crisp interface. ![image](https://pluralist.net/uploads/default/original/1X/4e09ddd3b5d1f7a454c69bc69dfbd704ca146e1a.jpeg) ([src](https://screenshots.modemhelp.net/screenshots/Outlook_Express/v6/Client/Index.shtml)) ![image](https://pluralist.net/uploads/default/original/1X/3af52488a3c9623bde911f0ad9c5cdfb17442fd3.jpeg) ([src](http://www.hawaii.edu/itsdocs/win/outlookexpress-pc/)) ![image](https://pluralist.net/uploads/default/original/1X/55e9fb94dffdb6459bcdb56ff3c0a9302a3a7c09.png) ([src](https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/outlook-express-6-folder-structure-in-windows-live/82665c49-3a07-4a82-8260-c8b427f004e5)) * * * ### The Bat! Last but not least is The Bat!! It was first built in 1997 in Moldova, and is still actively developed even today. The company behind it is [Ritlabs](https://ritlabs.com/)! ![image](https://pluralist.net/uploads/default/original/1X/2f48c917ceff05976720412a6616d3454315706b.jpeg) Another interesting, but unrelated, software that is done by the same company, Ritlabs, is [DOS Navigator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS_Navigator). DOS Navigator was written in Turbo Pascal! ![image](https://pluralist.net/uploads/default/original/1X/3c96c11465afa332e0808ee24c24b041c8538a1b.png) ([src](https://www.slant.co/topics/8222/~desktop-email-client-for-windows-10)) * * * # On Screenshots… Back in the early 1990s when Linux as an experimental OS and we all modded it however we wanted - it was popular to brag about your custom window manager, theme, background etc. There were sites dedicating to folks sharing screnshots of their Linux desktop environment. Here are a few modern and retro sites: - [deskto.ps](https://deskto.ps/) by [Joshua Stein](https://jcs.org/) - [Anders Jensen-Urstad](https://anders.unix.se/)’s [**Screenshots from developers & Unix people (2002)**](https://anders.unix.se/2015/10/28/screenshots-from-developers--unix-people-2002/) - also checkout the followup: [**Screenshots from developers: 2002 vs. 2015**](https://anders.unix.se/2015/12/10/screenshots-from-developers--2002-vs.-2015/) ←_a treasure!!_ My favorite is Dennis Ritchie’s desktop ![dmr_screenshot](https://pluralist.net/uploads/default/original/1X/3540b11a916afe23db19d52bea964efab0005b69.gif)