Dorner Speaks: A Conversation with the Creator of Eudora

--from Enterprise Times, Spring, 1994

Before the EudoraTM by QUALCOMM electronic mail software became commercially available in late 1993, there was just plain Eudora -- the immensely popular Macintosh freeware.

First made available to the Internet community in the spring of 1990, today it is estimated that over 500,000 individuals use Eudora worldwide. And that number is growing rapidly with the introduction of both the freeware and commercial versions of Eudora for Windows.

Recently, we at Enterprise Times sat down for a conversation with the creator of Eudora, Steve Dorner. We asked him about Eudora's roots, its phenomenal success, and, of course, its unusual name.

Eudora is a unique name for an e-mail package. Where did it come from?

There's a story I first read in college that I'll always remember entitled "Why I Live At the P.O.," written by a wonderful American writer, Eudora Welty.

This story inspired my original slogan, "Bringing the P.O. to Where You Live," because instead of living at the post office, Eudora brings the post office to you. So I named the program in honor of Ms. Welty.

What gave you the idea to work on Eudora?

In 1988, I was working for the Computing Services Office (CSO) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We had an e-mail service based on UNIX mail, but we were losing customers to another organization on campus that was offering IBM Professional Office System (PROFS) mail. We wanted to win our users back by coming up with a mail system they would like better than either of the existing systems.

After studying the problem, we came to the conclusion that we could never write an e-mail package that really filled the bill. The problem of doing e-mail right was just too big. But as we looked around for existing solutions, we soon found that nobody had really addressed the problems of e-mail properly. So we reconsidered our decision, and in 1989 I began work on what would become Eudora.

And was the problem too big?

Our initial pessimism turned out to be excessive. While it was a major undertaking, I was able to release the first version in the spring of 1990. It met almost all our requirements, except that it only worked over MacTCP. It was followed in the fall by the serial version, which allowed people to use it from home. Eudora was made available freely on the Internet because, as an educational institution, that's what we did with all of our software. Soon, other institutions began to pick it up and use it.

The Internet community's response to Eudora has been tremendous. Did this surprise you?

Yes. The response took me completely by surprise. I think it was better than anything else that was available, and the fact that it was free didn't hurt either. To be honest, if I had known it was going to be this popular, I don't think I would've been cheeky enough to name it after a living person.

What effect has your ongoing relationship with so many different Internet users had on Eudora's development?

Many of the features that have been added to Eudora since version 1.0 have come from user suggestions. Every time we plan a new version of Eudora, the first thing I do is personally review all the suggestions we've received. We've gotten some really great ideas that way.

How did your relationship with QUALCOMM begin?

In 1992, QUALCOMM, which already had work well under way on a PC version of Eudora for their in-house community of over 1000 users, offered me a position with their new QUEST business unit, including the opportunity to work further on Eudora.

We released version 1.3, and then began to think seriously about how to fund continued Eudora development. In the end, we decided to take a dual approach to Eudora; we would continue to maintain the free version, but would begin to sell an enhanced version, with additional features, customer support, and all the niceties.

And so, in the late summer of 1993, we released Eudora 1.4 to the Internet community for free, and began shipping the first copies of Eudora 2.0 for the Macintosh to our paying customers.

How did the Internet community respond when Eudora went from freeware to becoming a commercial product?

Most people who said anything at all were really happy to see it go commercial, so they could get honest-to-goodness customer support.

Is the freeware version still supported?

We will be maintaining it, and even adding new features from time to time. We have two goals with the free version. One is to keep the faith with users of the older freeware versions; we didn't want to leave them in a lurch. The second goal is to have something that users of the commercial version can give to their correspondents who may not have purchased Eudora.

What's next for Steve Dorner and Eudora?

I'm hard at work on the next version of Eudora, but I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise by saying exactly what that will look like.

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Last updated: 6 December 1997
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