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Is email still possible on a PPC?

Haemoglobin

Haemoglobin

macrumors regular
Original poster
Hello everyone!

I tend to use my older PPC laptops for writing, it's nice to sit down and not have THAT much internet freedom lol. However, I do occasionally need to send text files out to people playing on the PlayByEmail RPG that I run. I'm hesitant to log in to GMAIL using something life PowerFox, as i don't know how secure my detail are when the browser is making the connection and logging me in. So I wanted to ask others on here, how they tackle this or just don't. Is the time of accessing emails on a G4 long past? or is there still a way of doing it?

Many thanks
 
Haemoglobin said:
Hello everyone!

I tend to use my older PPC laptops for writing, it's nice to sit down and not have THAT much internet freedom lol. However, I do occasionally need to send text files out to people playing on the PlayByEmail RPG that I run. I'm hesitant to log in to GMAIL using something life PowerFox, as i don't know how secure my detail are when the browser is making the connection and logging me in. So I wanted to ask others on here, how they tackle this or just don't. Is the time of accessing emails on a G4 long past? or is there still a way of doing it?

Many thanks
Click to expand...
I have found, in the last several years, that it is largely easier for me to pick up my iPhone and check/email from that. In the case of longer emails where use of a physical keyboard is preferable (to me), then I will go out to web based email on my Mac.

I can't speak for PowerFox as to what it collects, but if its like most web browsers your Gmail details are not being sent to the developer of the app. My concern would more be over it being modern enough to authenticate with Google. Pretty sure it is.

I used to be a very big user of email apps, particularly Entourage and Outlook. And at work, I would still use Office exclusively. But, just reaching over for my phone has proven to be faster than opening the app and waiting for things to sort themselves. And, since I have largely moved away from the large amounts of email addresses I used to use, having my email app open in the background for the one or two emails a day that I might respond to hasn't been something I've been wanting to do lately.

That's probably no help to you, but that's my situation/experience.
 
Checking emails on my phone is one thing, but after writing something on my PB, I will occasionally need to send it out via email. And I frankly wasn't sure how safe it was using Powerfox or Webkit to login, as you have SSL encryption etc.
 
It will all be dependent on what the mailserver to which you are connecting requires (both for reading, e.g. IMAP, IMAPS, and sending, e.g., SMTP/eSMTP), as well as login process (OAUTH versus just login/passwd combo). TenFourBird is the "newest" email program that I have set up; there may be a version of 'claws' out there thatis more capable.TenFourBird is an update of the latest Thunderbird version for PPC Tiger, using the changesets from TenFourFox (since Firefox and Thunderbird use the same UI toolkit). The email part of SeaMonkey 2.26 (the last for PPC Leopard) is also something to try (my notes say it works with the Centurylink/Embarq/Brightspeed and Comcast/Xfinity servers). Good luck!
 
You could get an account at sdf.org.
Update your ssh with DropBear then ssh into your account with Terminal, type elm to bring up your email and copy/paste into new message or whatever you need to do. And all using a fraction of the CPU a browser needs!
 
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Haemoglobin said:
Hello everyone!

I tend to use my older PPC laptops for writing, it's nice to sit down and not have THAT much internet freedom lol. However, I do occasionally need to send text files out to people playing on the PlayByEmail RPG that I run. I'm hesitant to log in to GMAIL using something life PowerFox, as i don't know how secure my detail are when the browser is making the connection and logging me in. So I wanted to ask others on here, how they tackle this or just don't. Is the time of accessing emails on a G4 long past? or is there still a way of doing it?

Many thanks
Click to expand...
If you are specifically on Tiger client on a G4 and can deal with complicated instructions, there is a pre-built installer for claws-mail here: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/claws-mail
You do need an X server, but Tiger had one on the install disc that works well enough.
 
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barracuda156 said:
How complicated can be instructions for a pre-built installer?
Click to expand...
This complicated. Mpkg code was funky on Tiger so some things have to be separate. And then the actual setting the email client up with gmail is even more complicated.
  • Make sure you have an X11 server installed! The one from the Tiger install CDs works fine, as do various servers from Macports/PowerPC ports.
  • Download and mount disk2.dmg from https://old.mac.gdn/apps/disk2.dmg
  • Double click on the claws-mail-4.3.1.mpkg
  • Choose Custom install.
  • Deselect db48, fftw-3, freetype, icu, libde265, libevent, python313
  • Proceed to install.
  • Go back and install the pkg files for db48, fftw-3, freetype, icu, libde265, libevent, python313 separately (Macports broke the mpkg code for Tiger before PowerPC ports forked from it, and I didn't get around to fixing it properly, hence the awkwardness)
  • Using finder, find opt/clawsmail/bin/claws-mail
  • ctrl click (or right click) on opt/clawsmail/bin/claws-mail and select open with X11
  • Follow directions on https://bkhome.org/news/202511/gmail-app-password-with-claws.html
  • Select Get Mail and realize you don't clean out your inbox nearly often enough.
When you consider that the baseline for most apps is double click on a dmg and drag to Applications, many people are put off by anything more difficult. But a lot of the pain is Gmail's fault if one reads the link.
And these days, most people consider anything more than going to a web site too complicated.
Edit: fixed broken link
 
Last edited:
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Forest Expertise said:
This complicated. Mpkg code was funky on Tiger so some things have to be separate. And then the actual setting the email client up with gmail is even more complicated.
  • Make sure you have an X11 server installed! The one from the Tiger install CDs works fine, as do various servers from Macports/PowerPC ports.
  • Download and mount disk2.dmg from https://filebin.net/i19kjt3wwcd3p3kw
  • Double click on the claws-mail-4.3.1.mpkg
  • Choose Custom install.
  • Deselect db48, fftw-3, freetype, icu, libde265, libevent, python313
  • Proceed to install.
  • Go back and install the pkg files for db48, fftw-3, freetype, icu, libde265, libevent, python313 separately (Macports broke the mpkg code for Tiger before PowerPC ports forked from it, and I didn't get around to fixing it properly, hence the awkwardness)
  • Using finder, find opt/clawsmail/bin/claws-mail
  • ctrl click (or right click) on opt/clawsmail/bin/claws-mail and select open with X11
  • Follow directions on https://bkhome.org/news/202511/gmail-app-password-with-claws.html
  • Select Get Mail and realize you don't clean out your inbox nearly often enough.
When you consider that the baseline for most apps is double click on a dmg and drag to Applications, many people are put off by anything more difficult. But a lot of the pain is Gmail's fault if one reads the link.
And these days, most people consider anything more than going to a web site too complicated.
Click to expand...

Good lord
 
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Hi guys thanks for the replies, i did find a temporary solution. But just to answer a question raised, i'm attempting this on my G4 Powerbook running 10.5.8 Leopard
 
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