Anyone out there know how to get email out of Outlook/Exchange and into something else?

I use outlook at work, and also at home when doing stuff for work, but want to get all that stuff into a flat file similar to what UNIX uses (used?), which is also similar to what Eudora uses. In other words, I want to get away from Outlook/exchange all together and get into a format that is easily manipulated by scripts or easily imported into other email applications.