Contact: Sandra Schneible, 781-687-0700, sandra@barebones.com

Bare Bones Software Announces Release of Mailsmith 1.0
--Internet email client set apart by filtering, searching, and more

Bedford, MA--May 04, 1998--Bare Bones Software, Inc. today announced the
availability of version 1.0 of Mailsmith(tm), their new standards-based
Internet email client for the Mac OS(tm). Bare Bones Software is widely
known for BBEdit, their flagship text and HTML authoring tool. With the
release of Mailsmith, the company applies its expertise to the realm of
email.

Mailsmith is a full-featured Internet email application which offers
unparalleled filtering, searching, editing and scripting capabilites. In
addition to the strides made in these areas, Mailsmith breaks new ground in
making powerful email-handling capabilities accessible to users of all
levels.

"We undertook development of Mailsmith because we wanted an email client
that we ourselves would use, and none of the existing solutions met our
standards," said Rich Siegel, president and CEO of Bare Bones Software.
"Mailsmith lives up to that standard, and this first release presents a
solid foundation on which we will continue to build best-of-class
software."

Mailsmith Features

In addition to the essentials that every Internet email client must support
(such as conformance to the POP3 and SMTP mail transport protocols),
Mailsmith features the following capabilities, which enhance the overall
email experience:

- Multi-threaded processing: a new application architecture, based on
the concept of cooperative tasking within an application, makes it
possible for Mailsmith to simultaneously transmit, receive, and sort
incoming and outgoing email, all while the user is composing or
reading messages.

- Distributed Filters(tm): a new concept in sorting (or "filtering")
email, Distributed Filters make it possible for a small number of
reusable, easily-set-up filters to do the work of clumsy, monolithic
"rules". Unlike other email clients, Mailsmith filters can apply
multiple criteria within a filter, and each filter can trigger
multiple actions to be performed on the message being processed.

- Approximate ("fuzzy") searching: Mailsmith incorporates a new type
of text search, which makes it possible to locate text which
approximately matches (with an accuracy ranging from 20 to 100
percent) the specified search string. This means that the user no
longer has to precisely specify the search string in order to avoid
a flood of "false positives", or endlessly try different search
strings to find the needle in a haystack.

- "grep" pattern matching: Mailsmith is the first Mac OS-hosted email
client to bring sophisticated Unix(tm)-style regular expressions to
bear on the problem of mail searching and retrieval. By utilizing
grep patterns, users can search for or filter on text which matches
specific patterns of characters.

- Advanced searching: Mailsmith uses a high-tech database (powered by
NeoAccess(tm)) to store email. As a result, users can easily perform
searches which are impossible with any other Mac OS-hosted email
client, including multiple criteria connected by logical AND, OR,
and XOR operators, and optionally involving "grep" pattern matching
and approximate ("fuzzy") searching.

- Powerful OSA scripting: Mailsmith is the first Mac OS-hosted email
client in which email management is fully OSA scriptable and
recordable. As a result, users can enjoy unprecedented power and
flexibility in automating Mailsmith to serve their particular needs.
In addition, Mailsmith includes all of the materials necessary for
use with Frontier, the advanced system-level scripting environment
produced by UserLand Software.

- Advanced text composition: Bare Bones Software has included the
essential capabilities of BBEdit, their award-winning text editor,
at the core of the Mailsmith composition environment. Users can
enjoy world-class editing performance, coupled to a dizzying array
of text transformations, and further enhanced by the ability to
employ BBEdit plug-ins for specialized tasks.

- Compatibility: in addition to supporting the essential POP3 and SMTP
mail standards, Mailsmith also supports MIME (Multipurpose Internet
Mail Extensions) for the transmission and reception of email
messages containing content of varying types; outgoing file
attachments may be encoded in one of a number of popular
cross-platform encoding formats (including AppleSingle, AppleDouble,
and UUcode) as well as the Mac-standard "BinHex" format. Mailsmith
can directly import mail store files from the popular 'mbox' format
(which is used by email clients from other manufacturers), as well
as mail filters and address book files created by Eudora(tm).
Finally, import scripts are provided to assist in the migration to
Mailsmith from other Mac OS-hosted email clients.

Pricing & Availability

Mailsmith is available immediately at a suggested retail price of US$79.
Cross-upgrade options from other email applications are available direct
from Bare Bones Software. In addition, Bare Bones Software is extending a
special price offer (US$59) to all registered BBEdit customers. To order
Mailsmith direct from Bare Bones Software, contact the sales department at
781-687-0700, send email to (sales@barebones.com), or use the online order
form at (https://www.barebones.com/store/store.html). For a partial list of
domestic and international resellers, see:
(http://web.barebones.com/resellers/resell.html).

About Bare Bones Software, Inc.

Bare Bones Software, Inc., incorporated in 1994, is based in Bedford, MA.
Mailsmith is the most recent addition to their product family, which is led
by BBEdit, the company's flagship product. BBEdit has established a
following among software developers and HTML authors alike, based on its
superior plain-text editing capabilities and integration with new
technologies and other applications. BBEdit has received numerous accolades
from press and users, including the 1996 MacUser Eddy Award for Best
Development Tool, and the Macworld 1997 World Class Award for Best Web
Authoring Tool. For more information, visit the company's web site at
(http://web.barebones.com/) or send email to (sales@barebones.com).