At 09:23 AM 2/1/2000 -0800, BRENT CHRISTENSEN wrote:
>Outlook uses a very inefficient database for storing messages (IMHO), and
>the file sizes can get HUGE very fast.  I archive ALL my e-mail about once a
>month and the files are usually about 15 to 30 MB!  (OK, I do get a few word
>documents each day as attachments, but they are 20 to 30k at most usually).

Eudora stores mail in Unix format, i.e. each mailbox is a single text file
with messages appended to it.  My current Vanagon mailbox with 5542 msgs is
14,600 K, or two thirds the size of my first $2500 (Fujitsu 8-inch) hard
drive (with power supply it was about 5x8x24 inches).

It adds up -- every msg has headers, many of them are two or three times
the size they need to be because of HTML styling (which also makes the
headers bigger), and so forth.  File compression would cut the size in half
but need lots more processing and chances to mess up the file.

david
David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"