Open standards all revolve around TCP/IP standards and the Request for Comments (RFC) process that controls them. The important thing to note is that current e-mail protocols are evolving and continue to add functionality as they improve. An end user won't be worried about these standards, but someone who is doing the implementation for an operating system such as VMS or Linux will. What end users will need to know is what standards-based e-mail clients they can use from their various client platforms and what e-mail servers they can set up to store/retrieve their mail from OpenVMS and Linux servers on their network.

Internet client e-mail applications all do basically the same things, but some have more features then others. What features should you look for in a client e-mail system? Character cell or graphic e-mail applications should be the first consideration. Programs such as PINE are character-cell based, but can send attachments, binaries, and run on both OpenVMS and Linux as clients. Other programs, such as Mozilla (now Open Source from its Netscape roots), also run on both OpenVMS and Linux, but require an X Windows graphic display to work. Graphical displays give you a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) e-mail window, where the character cell clients allow you to telnet in from anywhere in your network and read your mail at least the text portions of it!

Today's important standards to check for when you configure your e-mail server include...