Editing Pine (email client)

{{short description|Email and newsgroups client}}
{{redirect|PINE|the white-supremacist group|People's Initiative of New England}}
{{Infobox software
| name                   = Pine
| screenshot             = PineScreenShot.png
| caption                = Pine 4.64's main menu
| developer              = University of Washington
| released               = {{Start date and age|1992|03|24}}
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|Q598868|P348|P548=Q2804309}}
| latest release date    = {{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|Q598868|P348|P548=Q2804309|P577}}
| latest preview version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|Q598868|P348|P548=Q51930650}}
| latest preview date    = {{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|Q598868|P348|P548=Q51930650|P577}}
| operating system       = [[Windows]], [[Unix]], [[Linux]]
| genre                  = [[Email client]]
| license                = [[Freeware]]
| discontinued           = yes
| website                = {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328145000/http://www.washington.edu/pine/ |date=28 March 2019| title=www.washington.edu/pine/}}
| replaced_by            = [[Alpine (email client)|Alpine]]
}}
'''Pine''' is a [[freeware]], [[text-based]] [[email client]] which was developed at the [[University of Washington]]. The first version was written in 1989,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.washington.edu/pine/overview/project-history.html|title=Pine Project History|access-date=2009-03-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217193232/http://www.washington.edu/pine/overview/project-history.html|archive-date=2009-02-17|url-status=dead}}</ref> and announced to the public in March 1992.<ref name="announcement">{{cite newsgroup |title = Announcing the Pine Mailer |author = University of Washington |date = 24 March 1992 |publication-date = 26 March 1992 |newsgroup = comp.mail.misc |message-id = 1992Mar26.021949.17772@u.washington.edu |url = https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.mail.misc/kqKQojTDVBM/kvYgyYbwfKoJ |access-date = 25 November 2014}}</ref> Source code was available for only the [[Unix]] version under a license written by the [[University of Washington]]. Pine is no longer under development, and has been replaced by the [[Alpine (email client)|Alpine]] client, which is available under the [[Apache License]].

==Supported platforms==
There are [[Unix]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], and [[Linux]] versions of Pine.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pine Information Center--Obtaining Pine software|url=http://www.washington.edu/pine/getpine/|publisher=University of Washington|access-date=2 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120921003243/http://www.washington.edu/pine/getpine/|archive-date=21 September 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Unix/Linux version is [[text user interface]] based&mdash;its message editor inspired the text editor [[Pico (text editor)|Pico]].  The Windows (and formerly DOS) version is called '''PC-Pine'''. '''WebPine''' was available to individuals associated with the University of Washington (students, [[Faculty (teaching staff)|faculty]], etc.)&mdash;a version of Pine implemented as a [[World Wide Web|web]] application.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pine Information Center--Obtaining Pine software|url=https://itconnect.uw.edu/connect/email/resources/uw-email/retirement//|publisher=University of Washington|access-date=23 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923162921/https://itconnect.uw.edu/connect/email/resources/uw-email/retirement/|archive-date=23 September 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Etymology==
Many people believe that Pine stands for "'''P'''ine '''I'''s '''N'''ot [[Elm (email client)|'''E'''lm]]". One of its original authors, [[Laurence Lundblade]], insists this was never the case and that it started off simply as a word and not an acronym, and that his first choice of a [[backronym]] for pine would be "Pine Is Nearly Elm". Over time, it was changed by the university to mean ''Program for Internet News and E-mail''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.island-resort.com/pine.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607212819/http://www.island-resort.com/pine.htm |archive-date=2011-06-07|access-date=2012-11-03|title=Laurence's home page: Naming Pine}}</ref>  The original announcement said: "Pine was originally based on Elm, but it has evolved much since, ('Pine Is No-longer Elm')."<ref name="announcement" />

==Licensing and clones==
Up to version 3.91, the Pine license was similar to [[BSD licenses|BSD]], and it stated that

:''Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee to the University of Washington is hereby granted …''

The university registered a [[trademark]] for the Pine name with respect to "computer programs used in communication and electronic mail applications" in March 1995.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74336887&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch|title=SN 74336887|website=Trademark Status & Document Retrieval}}</ref>

From version 3.92, the holder of the copyright, the University of Washington, changed the license so that even if the source code was still available, they did ''not'' allow modifications and changes to Pine  to be distributed by anyone other than themselves. They also claimed that even the old license never allowed distribution of modified versions.<ref>{{Cite mailing list|url=https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2002/11/msg00138.html|first=Branden|last=Robinson|title=Re: DFSG vs Pine's legal notices: where exactly is the gotcha?|mailing-list=debian-legal|date=2002-11-12|access-date=2009-08-06}}</ref>

The trademark for the Pine name was part of their position in this matter.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/warez.html#pine|title=What's wrong with Pine|website=Rick's Rants|first=Rick|last=Moen|access-date=2016-10-13}}</ref>

In reaction, some developers [[Fork (software development)|forked]] version 3.91 under the name MANA (for ''Mail And News Agent'') to avoid the trademark issue and the [[GNU Project]] adopted it as GNU Mana.  [[Richard Stallman]] claims that the University of Washington threatened<ref>{{Cite mailing list|url=https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2000/09/msg00014.html|title=Re: Free Pine?|mailing-list=debian-legal|first=Richard|last=Stallman|date=2000-09-02|access-date=2006-12-14}}</ref> to sue the Free Software Foundation for distributing the modified Pine program, resulting in the development of MANA ceasing and no versions being released.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://members.tripod.com/pooka_regent/ethics.html|title=The Golden Rule as Applied to Intellectual Property|access-date=2006-07-17|date=2002-12-12|first=David|last=Ramsey}}</ref>

The Pico clone [[GNU nano]] was also written due to the change in licensing terms of Pine and Pico, as explained by nano's author in a blog post criticizing the license in 2001.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.asty.org/archives/123|title=When Non-Free is "Free Enough"|website=asty.org|first=Chris|last=Allegretta|date=2001|language=en-US|access-date=2018-04-18}}</ref>

The University of Washington later modified their license somewhat to allow unmodified distribution of Pine alongside collections of [[free software]], but the license still does not conform to the Open Source and the Free Software Guidelines so it is [[source-available software]].
==Alpine==
{{main|Alpine (email client)}}
In 2006, the University of Washington announced that it stopped development of Pine with Pine 4.64, although Pine continues to be supported.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/pine-info/2006-November/055017.html|title=Steve Hubert answers that Pine development is frozen in favour of Alpine|access-date=2006-12-14|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070101071238/http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/pine-info/2006-November/055017.html|archive-date=2007-01-01}}</ref>

In its place is a new family of email tools based upon Pine, called [[Alpine (email client)|Alpine]] and licensed under the [[Apache License]], version 2. November 29, 2006 saw the first public [[Software release life cycle#Alpha|alpha release]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.mail.pine.general/3602|title=Announce of Alpine 0.8|access-date=2006-12-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120122062941/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.mail.pine.general/3602|archive-date=2012-01-22|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/alpine/|title=Alpine FTP download directory|access-date=2006-12-19}}{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> which forms a new approach, since the alpha test of Pine was always non-public.

Alpine 1.0 was publicly released on December 20, 2007. The most recent version 2.26 was released on June 3, 2022.<ref>[https://repo.or.cz/alpine.git/commit/9726c098a739edfdca6218bc5dee104c310957e9 Public Git Hosting - alpine.git/commit<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

==See also==
* [[Alpine (email client)]]
* [[Comparison of email clients]]
* [[Text-based email client]]
* [[UW IMAP]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://alpine.x10host.com/pine/ Patches for Pine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200127012639/http://alpine.x10host.com/pine/ |date=2020-01-27 }}

{{Email clients}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pine (E-Mail Client)}}
[[Category:Curses (programming library)]]
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[[Category:Email client software for Linux]]
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