Esumsoft Forums

I am running PP on Peppermint Linux, through Wine. Most of the features run as expected, except one, When I open a message and try to look at it as html, I get a get a blank page. On another thread I read that PP does html thru Internet Explorer. Since linux does not have IE, is there another way I can see html?
BTW, I am running PP 4.5.3

Searching for another issue I found this that in-part applies to your question perhaps: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7348&p=37219&hilit=html#p37219 referenced below.

Jeff wrote: ↑Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:26 pm ..... There are plans to remove PP's reliance on IE in the future, but it will be after v5.0.

As to the possibility of a current work-around (specific to Linux) -- I'll for the time being leave that to other members of the Esumsoft Team that should have more information on this.

WINE technically does support IE, but it's based on an older version (probably IE6) which does not have the security that most websites require today. So, it's possible that some HTML messages will work fine, but messages that rely on server-based images (e.g. newsletters) will probably not work too well. Here's a demonstration using Linux Mint: Basically: all the HTML text is displayed, but the images are not because they're hosted on a website and they're trying to be retrieved using unsupported SSL protocols.

So, what can you do? Well, my suggestion would be to use the menu: File / "Open message in Client" option. I wouldn't expect this to work immediately (it didn't for me, and I haven't tested any farther), but -- theoretically -- if you install a Windows email client like Thunderbird under WINE, you should be able to set PP's email client to TB (main menu: Tools / Options / General) and then that feature will work.

If that does work and it's something you think will be practical, there's a way you can add the "open message in client" to the toolbar so that it's easier to access. If you get to that point, let us know and we'll help you set that up.

Also, if you haven't done so already, you can force PP to always open the messages using Rich or plain text, which might be more practical for your situation. Check under main menu: Tools / Options / View messages. Disable "smart html viewing" and then change the "default message viewing preference."

Starting at the end: I have set PP to show messages as Rich Text, for now.
I understand that the 5 series will no longer depend on IE. Will you give a choice which browser to link to? Or will PP have it's own html "engine"?
As to your first suggestion, I have the linux version of Thunderbird, but PP cannot "find" it. I will see if I can download the Windows version on one of my Windows machines (whenever I try to download TB on my linux machine, I can only get the linux version).
I am also going to attempt to install IE8 on my linux machine thru wine.
I have Peppermint OS linux on my old HP Mini netbook, which travels with me. I have Windows 10 on my PC and my "couch" netbook. So I can use PP when traveling to see my email on the server and go to provider's web site if I really need to see the html.
Did something change on 4.5.3? I don't remember having this problem in the past.
I'm sticking with PP though, It runs fine on Windows and well enough on linux. I've found nothing that tops it.

crabboy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 8:26 pm I understand that the 5 series will no longer depend on IE.

Well, to avoid disappointing any expectations, the quote was, "it will be after v5.0" -- which is to say that it will *not* be in v5.0. It might be in v5.1 (doubtful), but it definitely won't be in v5.0.

crabboy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 8:26 pm Will you give a choice which browser to link to?

It's not that simple. The engine has to provide an API for POP Peeper to use it. The advantage of IE is that the API is provided by the OS, which means everyone has it and it's lightweight. As for the choices available, there really isn't any choice. My first choice would be Firefox; from what I remember, they used to provide such an API but it has been abandoned. The only other choice is Chrome, which isn't my first choice because -- among other reasons -- Google has a predilection to abandon projects. The advantage of using Chrome (over another option) is that it should be much more compatible with most email. The downside (I suspect) is that the inclusion of this type of 3rd party software will likely be significantly larger filesize than POP Peeper itself. Most people probably don't even pay attention to filesize anymore (some people may even think PP can't be good because it's not half a gig), but I still prefer to write clean, efficient code without overusing 3rd party libraries.

crabboy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 8:26 pm I will see if I can download the Windows version on one of my Windows machines (whenever I try to download TB on my linux machine, I can only get the linux version).

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/all/

I am also going to attempt to install IE8 on my linux machine thru wine.

Even if you can install IE8 and it's actually usable by POP Peeper, there's no guarantee that it will work. I believe that the SSL/TLS standards that were supported on XP (IE8 is the last version supported on XP) are obsolete. Indeed, there's a nice table here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archiv ... on-windows
which shows that XP does not support TLSv1.1/1.2. TLS 1.0 is obsolete and most websites don't support it; and these days, even a blank website is expected to use encryption, which will likely be at least TLSv1.1. So even if you can install IE8, I'd say that there's less than a 1% chance that it would have any meaningful difference.

Did something change on 4.5.3? I don't remember having this problem in the past.

I'd say it's been this way for at least a couple of years or more -- whenever the respective websites moved on from SSL3.0/TLS1.0. Fortunately, POP Peeper can still work on Linux for IMAP/POP3 because they will use the SSL plugin, which can be updated independently of the OS.

Jeff wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 10:43 pm

crabboy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 8:26 pm I will see if I can download the Windows version on one of my Windows machines (whenever I try to download TB on my linux machine, I can only get the linux version).

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/all/

Thank you for the link! Much more useful than what I found!

Jeff wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 10:43 pm

crabboy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 8:26 pm I will see if I can download the Windows version on one of my Windows machines (whenever I try to download TB on my linux machine, I can only get the linux version).

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/all/

I am also going to attempt to install IE8 on my linux machine thru wine.

Even if you can install IE8 and it's actually usable by POP Peeper, there's no guarantee that it will work....

Update: Installing Thunderbird via Wine did not work.
If I can somehow install IE9 is there a chance that will work?
If I can find no answer I'll just continue to use Rich Text and go to the (webmail) sites when needed.
Thanks for all your help!

Which part didn't work? You may still have to set POP Peeper to use Thunderbird as the email client under Tools / Options / General. If Thunderbird does not appear in the dropdown list, you can set it to the full path of Thunderbird.exe.

As for installing IE9+ -- sorry, I really have no idea if that's possible or if it would work if it is possible.

Jeff wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2020 3:49 pm Which part didn't work? ...

For some reason I could not install Thunderbird with Wine.
Perhaps there was a conflict with the linux version of TB, I don't know.
It's not that big a deal. I can use PP even if I cannot see html on that computer.

Jeff wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 10:43 pmbut I still prefer to write clean, efficient code without overusing 3rd party libraries.

Hear, hear!

Success! Success! I downloaded the newest version of PlayOnLinux (https://www.playonlinux.com/en/) and installed IE8. HTML works now!

Nice! Glad to hear it and hopefully this can help others on Linux

Update: this solution may not work in all Linux distros. I had success in Peppermint OS but not MX Linux.