High-Time-Microsoft-Lost-it Email
HTML email has always been a very bad idea.
I can still remember the first HTML email that I received from a friend (almost a decade ago). It was an unpleasant experience – big type mixed with small type, shitty fonts in shitty colours over a shitty coloured background. It was like watching my email program being raped.
I can still remember the first HTML spam email that I opened. I opened the email and basically watched a webpage load in front of my eyes – which if you know anything about computer security is a very bad thing indeed.
Email should consist of two parts: plaintext for the message that you want to communicate; and the ability to attach a binary file - if you absolutely have to send anything other than plaintext.
I’ve been using the internet long enough to remember how good email used to be before the dark-ages of HTML and spam.
Most people who use computers don’t have a frigging clue what they are actually doing half the time. If we had the same level of global incompetence with driving skills it would be probable that most people driving would be crashing their cars every other trip. We wouldn’t put up with that level of chaos on the roads, so why do we put up with HTML and spam in emails? Computers and their networks are a vital part of our economic infrastructure. They are as important as roads.
It seems fitting that Microsoft should be the company to scale-back support for HTML email in Outlook (seeing as they were the buggers who introduced it – I’m thinking of Outlook Express in Windows 98).
I applaud Microsoft for having the common sense to do this. I just wish that they had gone further and completely removed support for HTML rather than have the ability to render HTML in a Word engine (a decision which was obviously taken to lock people into Office, but hey, that’s Microsoft for you).
Microsoft has a responsibility to improve the security of their products like Windows and Office (because they are so widely used by the business community), but the community also has to share some of that responsibility and train their staff properly so that they can recognize security threats on their computers. Only a joint effort will improve computer security for everyone.
If you’re going to miss HTML email then I have some simple advice: put your HTML message on a website server (where it belongs) and include a link to it in your email.
