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I tried out the Green email client back in the fall of 1999, when it was at about beta 7. It was small and fast, had a very attractive interface, and more features than I needed, but it was still kind of rough in places, and buggy. I've taken a look at a few subsequent builds of Green, but didn't really give it another in-use test until a couple of weeks ago, when I downloaded Green 1.0b13 to check out. What prompted me to do so was my local ISP switching to SMTP authentication for outgoing mail. While several Power PC email clients support authentication, the choices for 68k MAC users are thin on the ground, and while it is not an issue for me personally, some friends of mine with older Macs were wondering whether they would have to revert to Web based email or upgrade to a PPC machine in order to continue using POP3. Happily, at least two Mac email clients support both SMTP authentication and 68k Macs. One is Cyrusoft's shareware application Mulberry, and the other is Green -- at least for 68040 machines. Green requires Mac OS 8.1, so if you have an '030 or '020 Mac, your only choice is Mulberry. Winner of the Apple Developer Challenge presented at the Apple booth at Apple Expo 99 in Paris, Green is a freeware Mac email client with a beautiful interface. 
The latest version of Green is still small, still fast, and still is perhaps the best looking of any Mac email client. I am not a big fan of toolbars, and I keep the toolbar turned off in Eudora 5.1, but Green's is one of the best I've seen, with somewhat intuitive buttons and eight toggleable text field that identifies button function on mouse over. I also usually dislike on-line help/manuals, but Green's is about as good as I've seen as well, with readable, helpful info and intuitive navigation. Excellent, especially considering that this program was developed in France, and English is presumably the second language of whoever wrote the help manual. 
Green has a raft of advanced features. It is Appearance-savvy, and supports multiple accounts and personalities, as well as html or text email. 
You can opt for a Eudora style minimalist interface with or without the toolbar, or go with an Outlook Express style three-window interface in Green's Preferences, which like the program are very attractively presented. 
Green allows you to define mail rules that will automatically reply to incoming mails, print a paper copy of a mail, or forward the mail to someone else, and even start an AppleScript, all at the same time. This application also allows you to share one machine with other people without each person needing a private copy of the program. Each person can define a personal mail environment, and password protect it against unwanted access from others. Another neat wrinkle is that you can select various download priority modes, such as "First in, first out," or "Small mail first" (and the vice-versa of those two). Green lets you create hierarchical mailboxes to easily organize your mail, and allows you to import mailboxes from Outlook Express (pre 5.0 versions), Netscape, and Eudora. One other cool thing about Green mailboxes is that you can convert them to Eudora mailboxes and vice-versa by changing the File Type and Creator Code info using ResEdit. Just drag a mailbox to ResEdit and when the window opens (it will be blank) select "Get Info For --" from the File Menu. That will bring up a dialog box with the File Type and Creator Codes. File Type:
Creator Code:
Change them to the other application's specs, and the mailbox will convert. This makes it possible to move or share mailboxes between the two applications. However, there are a couple of issues with Green that will keep me from adopting it -- yet -- as an everyday email client. These are partly matters of taste rather than faults with the program, and partly practical considerations that pertain somewhat specifically to the way I use email. They include: 1. Green only supports lists of grouped recipients up to six addresses. I have e-mail lists that may contain 50 or more names, which even Eudora Light handles nicely. 2. Green doesn't allow you to copy and paste the sender address and subject line from a received e-mail. This drives me nuts, and would incline me not to use the program even if there were no other issues. 3. I had problems with the tops of message windows opening behind the toolbar or out of the Finder window. There may be a configuration selection that allows you to adjust this, but I didn't find it. However, if these issues are not problematical for you, I would suggest giving a Green and try. It really is an extraordinarily attractive program, and it seems to work very well. Also, if you have an '040 machine and need SMTP authentication support, it is your only freeware choice. System requirements:
I'm giving Green a four smiley Applelinks rating. With just a bit more refining, this will be one of the best Mac email clients available. It's already the prettiest.  For more information, visit:
Koinga Software's Blaze is a new text editor attempting to make its mark in a very crowded field. Koinga has a reputation for writing very solid applications, so I had high hopes for Blaze being something exceptional. The principal problem that any new shareware text editing program for the Mac platform has in establishing a user base can be summarized in three words: BB Edit Lite. Anyone wanting to convince you to part with some cash for a program that does he essentially the same thing as a Bare Bones Software's excellent freeware application has to supply some compelling feature is over and above BB Edit Lite's capability in order to justify the shareware fee. BB Edit Lite is a powerful program that benefits from sharing its basic engineering with its big brother BB Edit, which is arguably the most powerful Mac text editor on the planet. It has searching replace functions that are second to none, is fast and stable, and is an incredible piece of work for freeware. Tex Edit Plus, which is the most popular shareware Mac text editor, provides the rationale for paying its shareware fee by offering some very cool features that BB Edit Lite doesn't --the killer one being its slick support of AppleScript that regular readers are probably tired of hearing me rave about, but if you can try it, you know why I'm enthusiastic. Tex Edit Plus also has a constellation of other cool bells and whistles like its support of styled text, pictures, and MIDI files, its ability to save documents in many formats, and its very nice text cleaning functions that make it well worth the $15 shareware fee. That's a long preamble, but it is in aid of explaining why I don't think Blaze comes anywhere near justifying its $15.55 shareware fee, at least yet. What is there seems very solid and nicely executed, but there just isn't very much there as yet. 
Blaze has a serviceable, albeit very spartan interface with lots of menus that don't have a whole lot in them at this point. It handles all the basic text-crunching toward adequately, but falls far short of BB Edit Lite and Tex Edit Plus in more advanced functionality. Its real competition at this stage of development is Simple Text or OS X Text Edit, and it has a leg up on them, but it's not in the same league as the other two third party applications mentioned, or indeed several other Mac text editors that sell for less than $15.55. I was disappointed with the Export as html function, which just adds html header and footer tags to the document, with no markup of the text. Not very useful. A styled html selection is there but grayed out, so I guess it will be forthcoming in a future version of Blaze. Blaze Basic Feature List:
System requirements:
Blaze is $15.55 demoware. I'm giving Blaze just two smileys out of a possible five. I hope that doesn't seem too harsh, but in the context of the competition and the value it offers at its current stage of development, that's all it deserves. Blaze is not a bad program, and perhaps it's not fair to review a version 1.x application so soon after it has been introduced, but this program is really in search of a reason to exist. Also, the shareware nag notice is one of the most obtrusive and annoying I've encountered, and I would suggest that Koingo reprogram it to kick in only after the demo period expires if they don't want to antagonize potential buyers into giving up on it before they have a chance to get a feel for the program. I will be interested to see how Blaze develops. They've got the foundation of a good text editor here. If they added Tex Edit like AppleScript support, it would enhance Blaze immensely.  For more information, visit:
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