A popular full-featured Internet mail program (mail client) from Qualcomm for Windows and Mac. Available in light, sponsored and paid versions, Eudora was often bundled with computers and ISP startup packages in the early days of the Internet.
From Eudora to Penelope to Eudora OSE
Qualcomm dropped support for the commercial Eudora product in 2007. However, Eudora lived on as the Penelope open source project from the Mozilla Foundation. Using the Thunderbird mail client as its foundation, Penelope extensions added more Eudora functionality. Later, the Eudora name was resurrected as a single product based on Thunderbird and Penelope and then Eudora became Eudora OSE (Open Source Edition) to avoid confusion with the original software. Version 1.0 of Eudora OSE was offered in 2010. For more information, visit http://wiki.mozilla.org/Eudora_Releases. See
Thunderbird.
Eudora Was a Pulitzer Prize Winner
Developed by Steve Dorner at the University of Illinois, Eudora was first released as freeware for the Mac in 1988 and later for Windows. It was the first popular graphics-based mail program, and more than 20 million people have used it.
The software was named after Eudora Welty (1909-2001), an American novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner who, along with such greats as William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams, created a Southern literary renaissance in the U.S. from the 1930s to the 1950s. One of Miss Welty's short stories, "Why I Live at the P.O.," was a tale about a woman who lived at the post office instead of at home. It inspired Dorner, who was spending so much time programming a mail application. See
stationery.