Aurora/HERMES

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The Aurora/HERMES project is working on updating the venerable Eudora email client. Several years ago Qualcomm released the Eudora source code, and efforts got underway immediately to correct its most serious deficiencies–the inability to work with modern TLS and site certificates. These were quickly corrected and a fix was issued under the name of HERMES. The next step was to remove and replace some proprietary code that could not be redistributed with the new project. After that, work began on making Eudora properly handle the unicode character set and modern encoding schemes such as UTF-8. That work has been ongoing and the new product, called Aurora, is now in closed alpha testing. It now seems likely that this project will succeed in issuing a product that has all of the great features of Eudora but with far fewer of its faults. I’ve seen the current alpha build and it works quite well, while having a few cosmetic display issues. The product runs on Windows 7 and later Windows operating systems. The project manager hopes to continue to roll out incremental improvements as time goes on, including a MacOS version. As regards pricing, the last I heard, Aurora would use a share-ware model: a limited-feature version would be available for free, while a full-featured version would require a paid license.

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exelte, WSEricSk, windbg, Mr. Austin

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Wow. It’s a lovely thought that Eudora might be reborn as Aurora. Eudora was my first and favorite e-mail program. Yet with everything software it’s all in the execution and support of the final product.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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To hear what’s going on from the developer, <!–StartFragment –>https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mail.eudora.ms-windows/c/0XRUZ6xn6ww<!–EndFragment –>  on 10/16, which points to the Indiegogo page: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hermes-mail-8-0-the-final-stretch

If you want access to the current [late alpha] builds, make a donation.  I think $70 USD is needed to get access to these early builds.  They work, but dealing with UTF-8 and modern HTML in emails has proven to be a daunting task working within the old Eudora code base.  I have not switched over to Aurora yet; I use Len Shustek’s binary patches and mailbox fixer program to clean things up for now: https://github.com/LenShustek/Eudora_fix_mbx .  And as one who is forced to use Office365/Outlook email for work, which now requires OAuth2, I use SimonRobs proxy: https://github.com/simonrob/email-oauth2-proxy — there’s a Windows executable version that doesn’t require Python.  All this is complicated, but it’s worth the trouble to continue to use the world’s best power user email client.  Eventually Aurora will [hopefully] just work out of the box for me.  Not yet tho.

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I feel that, for me, Eudora has reached the end of the line.  A twenty-seveI year run ended yesterday, 08 MAY 2024 when my domain host implemented a new protocol ending support for TLS 1.0 & 1.1.  I copied in the four files, 3 DLL and 1 P7B, from HERMES and fiddled with the settings in Eudora in all possible combinations to no avail.  One site suggested that if using GMAIL, that one can flip the “less secure app” switch.  However, my host has no such switch and will not accommodate my request to lessen the security level on my domain alone.  Moreover, GMAIL is going the same way in September.  So as it stands, from yesterday, I am unable to send or receive email using Eudora.  This is a huge inconvenience since, as is well known, Eudora does many things that no other email client can.  I am hamstrung without it.  Aurora looks like a smart phone app that works only with IMAP.  Am I mistaken?  What to do?

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The Hermes QCSSL patch works w/ TLS1.2.  You can try installing this more recent (from a year ago) version of it: https://www.maclean.com/downloads/QCSSL_Update.zip

Aurora *IS* Eudora.  It’s a classic Windows program, compiled with the code from the last Eudora release with updates to make it handle UTF8 and other things.

Your email provider may have changed other things to more secure authentication like an app password, or OAuth2.  I use Eudora with Microsoft Office365 email (not by choice …) and need to use a proxy to provide the OAuth2 support, but Eudora still works ok with a bit of help here and there.  It is getting very long in the tooth, and Hermes Aurora is coming along slowly but steadily.  If you make a donation of US$70 on the indiegogo page

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hermes-mail-8-0-the-final-stretch#/ you get access to the late Alpha of it, plus support.

Meanwhile, there is always Pandora, a Eudora-ish commercial product that is a decent choice at a reasonable price.

 

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WSEricSk, windbg

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Aurora is going to be renamed as EudoraMail. Also attention is being given to solve Oauth2. The more folk that can support the project the better. Each alpha version is tested by the present members of the group. There is a good number who now use Aurora as their main email client and so shortfalls are soon detected.

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I downloaded aurora. But aurora.exe is rejected by windows defender smartscreen. Is it safe to execute it? If so, how can create a kind a exception for aurora.exe in defender smartscreen?

Thank you

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Why use aurora / eudora when Thunderbird is available and supported?

cheers, Paul

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Alex5723

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It is safe.  The place for these Qs is the Signal Aurora group, which you presumably have access to.

 

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I don´t have access to Signal Aurora group.  How can I enter it?

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Just noticed this….

The latest info I have for joining the Hermes project is to “purchase” the product through the indegogo campaign:  https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hermes-eudoramail-8-0-the-final-stretch#/

Unfortunately the process isn’t perfect as the admin is run by one person:  Nick Werner-Matavka <n.theodore.matavka.files@gmail.com> and if you make a donation but don’t hear from him then I would suggest contacting directly.  I think he must batch responses, perhaps once monthly, so one must have patience.

Eudora and Hermes both continue to have major problems if you are bothered by them; the Hermes product is better in some ways and not better in others.  It is still being actively worked on though, so if like me you loath MS and it’s Outback product you will stick with Eudora/H.  I’m happy doing that.

But of course there are, oddly, no end of alternative email clients out there:   TBird, Pandora, iLetter, and others which a quick search will locate for you (an AI search found a source entitled “13 amazing open source email clients for desktop in 2025” so someone is working on them!!!)

Richard

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