I am phasing out my linux box at home in favor of a new Apple Titanium
powerbook that I will soon be buying.  This is all fine and good with
one problem.

I have lots of old archived email on my computer, all in Netscape for
Linux format.  (I don't know exactly what format this is...)  I want
to convert it into a format that will be read by Microsoft Entourage
on the Mac.  However I haven't yet been able to figure out how to move
it.

I haven't tried to move the mail onto a Mac yet, but I have moved one
folder file worth of mail from my linux box to my Windows 2k machine
at work, and tried to import it in both Microsoft Outlook and in
Netscape for Windows.  No dice either time.  I don't expect that I
will find any better solutions on the mac side.

My only option at this point seems to be to beg for a HUGE account on
my company's exchange server and drag and drop all my old email over
my 56k modem line onto the server using IMAP in Netscape for Linux
(which will probably crash every 2 MB or so), then create .pst's or
something.  This doesn't sound very appealing.  What's the best way to
migrate all my old mail to my new system?

Thanks,
wmmiv-ga

Greetings!

Entourage for OS X can directly import mail from Netscape version 4.x.
 It cannot directly import mail from later versions of Netscape. 
However, there may be some issues with the import - refer to the
Entourage X Read Me.html  file for additional information on that.

For what it's worth, Netscape version 4.x uses the standard mbox mail
format.

The Microsoft KB article that lists the formats that Entourage X
supports is here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q311588

The Read Me.html file is here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q312427

The basic idea is that you want to copy the folder that contains the
Netscape User Profile, along with the mail, from the Linux box to the
Mac OS X box.  This is quite simple, since both machines have common
protocols, such as NFS or FTP. Either set up an NFS mount and copy the
files, or simply FTP the directory from one box to another.

Once you have the folder and all data transfered to the Mac laptop,
just click 'Import' from the 'File' menu in Entourage, and follow the
on-screen steps.

Good luck, and congratulations on your new purchase!  I'm jealous. 
:-)


Search Terms:
Entourage 
import netscape mail


Related Links, Additional Info:

Mac Support from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/support/mysupport.asp?lu=0&navindex=%22s4c%22

Mac Entourage X:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/entouragex/default.asp?navindex=s4

MBox Mail Format:
http://www.qmail.org/qmail-manual-html/man5/mbox.html

Looks good, thanks!

Here is the best solution I found for the migration you want to
perform:

MailSmith is a commercial macintosh e-mail client with a
fully-featured free demo. It also contains powerful easy-to-use
mailbox importing and exporting.

From the MailSmith technical notes under "Manually Importing Mail and
Addresses" then under "Netscape".

"Netscape Mail
Mailboxes: Netscape stores mail in a file format based on the Unix
mbox format. These mailbox files can be imported into Mailsmith using
the procedure described above.

Addresses: The easiest way to import addresses from Netscape mail is
via drag-and-drop. Simply open the address book windows in both
Netscape and Mailsmith. Then select all the addresses from Netscape
you wish to import and drag them into the Mailsmith address book
window. "

http://www.barebones.com/support/technotes/import-export.html#netscape

MailSmith can then export your mail folders in the standard mbox
format. The below link also contains an AppleScript for automatic
exporting of every mailbox.

From the Mail Smith Technical Notes under "Exporting"

"Mail: The Export command in the File menu allows you to export
messages and mailboxes from Mailsmith using the standard mbox file
format. If you invoke the Export command with a selection of one or
more messages, those messages will be exported to a single mbox file.
If you invoke the Export command with a selection of mailboxes, an
exported mbox file will be created for each mailbox. You will be
prompted to choose a name and location for each mbox file, using a
standard Save dialog. "


The fully functional demo can be downloaded from the BareBones website
here:

http://www.barebones.com/products/mailsmith/mailsmith-demo.html

I hope this helps!