>There is one abomination of a proprietary mail client which makes 
>in-line posting extremely difficult, and virtually forces the user to 
>top-post. Unfortunately this particular mail client is widely used due 
>to it being  about the only client compatible with a widely used 
>proprietary backend mail server, as well as being the default mail 
>client for a great many users

LOL.  Put rather nicely.

>who simply don't realise that there are 
>better options available, many of which are free. 

They are not available if you can't use them with your proprietary mail
server.  And, remember, that this proprietary mail server took over for
other reasons.  I've been involve in many projects where they attempted
to replace their proprietary mail server with something else that does
all of the same stuff, and it almost always goes nowhere, because:

a. The non-proprietary clients to which you refer don't approach
   other areas of functionality available in the proprietary client
b. The non-proprietary server won't interact seamlessly with the
   proprietary email client for those who prefer it.

And so here we are.

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