[Evolution] MS's winmap.dat encoding in IMAP mail

[Adam Warner <lists consulting net nz>]

(I sent this using a non-subscribed email address the first time by
mistake)

Hi all,

Many on this mailing list are probably aware of the difficulty in
transferring mail from Microsoft Outlook 2000 to a non-proprietary
format. I thought I had finally achieved this by storing all corporate
mail in a PST file, transferring that mail to an Outlook client that
uses Internet Only mail and then using Outlook to open that PST file and
copy that mail to my own IMAP server using Outlook's built in IMAP
functionality.

I am now dismayed to have discovered that much of the mail can still
only be properly read by Microsoft Outlook. The simple reason is that
Microsoft encodes much of the mail I have been sent in Rich Text Format.
When you try and view the messages in a non-MS email client many of the
messages are missing sender details and many of the attachments become:

Name: winmail.dat
Type: application/ms-tnef
Encoding: base64

This is a real disappointment. Within those attachments are the actual
attachments that have been encapsulated in Microsoft's proprietary
format.

I wonder if there is:

(a) any way to decode these attachments under Linux (e.g. by re-encoding
a plain text mailbox folder to remove the encapsulation).

(b) Whether Evolution is aiming to support this encoding format.

I have tried Netscape Messenger, Mozilla and Evolution and all just see
winmail.dat attachments.

Regards,
Adam Warner