People need to communicate with each other to get work done. When they have a computer network communication can be accomplished quickly and easily using e-mail.

E-mail is a lot like the standard mail that you are used to receiving at your home. It can contain text and attachments (like a spreadsheet or a program file) and it is addressed to a recipient or group of recipients.

In the next few pages you will learn how to use the mail program that comes with Linux to send and receive mail as well as attachments to other users on you network.