Yeah, and converting old mail wasn't easy even when Thunderbird had an importer. 10s of GB were a problem as the importer often broke at about 2GB. Even TB's own native boxes broke when about that size.
So could Eudora's for that matter. Crashes were a particular problem with large boxes (.MBX files) as they often had crosslinks from users shutting down too quickly. Trouble was that when the mailer reindexed/compressed the box it would often stop at the crosslink and the remaining mail lost (I used to advise everybody never to reindex unless they'd backed up immediately beforehand). No doubt if you were in the IT at the time then I'm preaching to the converted. ;-)
I often use this example to illustrate bad design and the need for data hardening. If the time you're mentioning was before Qualcomm announced an end of Eudora then this may have been one of the reasons to move away. That said, mail clients haven't progressed much since. The MBOX is simple and still predominates but that's a mixed blessing when we need separate index files. Essentially, those who've many GBs of mail still have a problem. Little wonder many have turned from POP/IMAP to web mail.
So could Eudora's for that matter. Crashes were a particular problem with large boxes (.MBX files) as they often had crosslinks from users shutting down too quickly. Trouble was that when the mailer reindexed/compressed the box it would often stop at the crosslink and the remaining mail lost (I used to advise everybody never to reindex unless they'd backed up immediately beforehand). No doubt if you were in the IT at the time then I'm preaching to the converted. ;-)
I often use this example to illustrate bad design and the need for data hardening. If the time you're mentioning was before Qualcomm announced an end of Eudora then this may have been one of the reasons to move away. That said, mail clients haven't progressed much since. The MBOX is simple and still predominates but that's a mixed blessing when we need separate index files. Essentially, those who've many GBs of mail still have a problem. Little wonder many have turned from POP/IMAP to web mail.