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Show HN: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail

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Re: Show HN: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail

#231

Post by hombre_fatal »

trogdor wrote: post #206
josteink wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mimestream differs from other email clients because it uses the Gmail API rather than IMAP Technically speaking that make Mimestream not an email-client, but only a Gmail-client. It's only an email-client if it works with general email-providers, which this one clearly doesn't.

I think that's more than just a technical point. If someone sold me an email client that only supported one provider, I'd feel swindled. I would encourage them to reconsider their "email client" language. It's asking for a headache.

Let's not go overboard, you two.

Their title on HN and website is "A native macOS email client for Gmail," and that's exactly what it is, especially if you were trying to be technical.

It's like bickering that it's not a native client, it's a macOS client, because it only runs on macOS. Or that you'd feel swindled if it didn't run on Gentoo because anything that calls itself "software" when it's really "Macware" is basically false advertising. It's an odd attempt at pedantry.

Re: Show HN: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail

#232

Post by danielbarla »

sixhobbits wrote: post #224
njhaveri wrote: post #2

Hi HN! In the past, I spent over 7 years working on Apple Mail, and today I am really excited to share a new email client I'm building: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail. Mimestream is written in Swift, and uses AppKit+SwiftUI for a clean, stock appearance. It's designed to be fast, lightweight, and use a minimal amount of disk space. Mimestream's advantages over using the Gmail web interface includes…

We do still have to trust you though right njhaveri? If I understand it correctly this is a closed source app with unlimited access to GMail. How can users be sure that it doesn't do stuff that you say it doesn't or that you are who you say you are, considering "Mimestream LLC" only has an email address and your HN profile has only ever posted about this one app? Hope that's not too aggressive :) legitimately curious…

It's a valid question, though I suspect that trust in a paid, MacOS-AppStore environment fundamentally works differently to the open source world.

Re: Show HN: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail

#233

Post by josteink »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #231
trogdor wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's more than just a technical point. If someone sold me an email client that only supported one provider, I'd feel swindled. I would encourage them to reconsider their "email client" language. It's asking for a headache.

Let's not go overboard, you two. Their title on HN and website is "A native macOS email client for Gmail," and that's exactly what it is, especially if you were trying to be technical. It's like bickering that it's not a native client, it's a macOS client, because it only runs on macOS. Or that you'd feel swindled if it didn't run on Gentoo because anything that calls itself "software" when it's really "Macware" is b…

> Their title on HN and website is "A native macOS email client for Gmail," and that's exactly what it is, especially if you were trying to be technical.

"Email client" used to mean something before everyone started assuming Email = Gmail.

Imagine someone submitting a link posted as "A web-browser for facebook.com".

Nobody here would ever accept that a piece of software which could only work on facebook.com to be an actual web-browser.

So why should we allow for the same exception when it comes to email?

Re: Show HN: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail

#234

Post by jpwgarrison »

jdhawk wrote: post #221
jpwgarrison wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mailmate at https://freron.com/ is fantastic. My only gripe is that it is Mac-only, so I can't use it on my work desktop. (linux)

what do you use on linux?

A mix of mutt for triage and reluctantly, the gmail web interface. I think I have tried every real client available and been disappointed in many different ways?

Re: Show HN: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail

#235

Post by dhritzkiv »

nbap wrote: post #229

I love the simplicity; form follows function. Is there a way to get rid of the badge counter on the dock icon? I somewhat feel anxious/FOMO when the counter is there.

The way I get rid of the badge is by reading all my email and deleting the unimportant ones. (Not being snarky, just funny)

Re: Show HN: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail

#236

Post by aequitas »

njhaveri wrote: post #2

Hi HN! In the past, I spent over 7 years working on Apple Mail, and today I am really excited to share a new email client I'm building: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail. Mimestream is written in Swift, and uses AppKit+SwiftUI for a clean, stock appearance. It's designed to be fast, lightweight, and use a minimal amount of disk space. Mimestream's advantages over using the Gmail web interface includes…

Awesome. The only thing that drew me away from Apple Mail is the fact it didn't have build-in snooze functionality for emails like Gmail has. Does/will Mimestream support this too?

To bad it has a macOS 10.15 requirement.

Re: Show HN: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail

#237

Post by rapnie »

sixhobbits wrote: post #224
njhaveri wrote: post #2

Hi HN! In the past, I spent over 7 years working on Apple Mail, and today I am really excited to share a new email client I'm building: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail. Mimestream is written in Swift, and uses AppKit+SwiftUI for a clean, stock appearance. It's designed to be fast, lightweight, and use a minimal amount of disk space. Mimestream's advantages over using the Gmail web interface includes…

We do still have to trust you though right njhaveri? If I understand it correctly this is a closed source app with unlimited access to GMail. How can users be sure that it doesn't do stuff that you say it doesn't or that you are who you say you are, considering "Mimestream LLC" only has an email address and your HN profile has only ever posted about this one app? Hope that's not too aggressive :) legitimately curious…

I notice that many, many software + service / SaaS are like that.

"Sign up to our cool thing and see how well it works with all the PII you put in it. We are closed source, do not present our company, our team, or how we intend to earn money. No privacy policy too, but hey.. we do have a nice email"

/endrant

This really surprises me. I'd never try these out. Should be so easy to just be a bit more open.

In this case at least the founder announces himself, which is a good start.

Re: Show HN: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail

#238

Post by njhaveri »

sixhobbits wrote: post #224
njhaveri wrote: post #2

Hi HN! In the past, I spent over 7 years working on Apple Mail, and today I am really excited to share a new email client I'm building: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail. Mimestream is written in Swift, and uses AppKit+SwiftUI for a clean, stock appearance. It's designed to be fast, lightweight, and use a minimal amount of disk space. Mimestream's advantages over using the Gmail web interface includes…

We do still have to trust you though right njhaveri? If I understand it correctly this is a closed source app with unlimited access to GMail. How can users be sure that it doesn't do stuff that you say it doesn't or that you are who you say you are, considering "Mimestream LLC" only has an email address and your HN profile has only ever posted about this one app? Hope that's not too aggressive :) legitimately curious…

This is a very fair concern, and I sympathize with it a lot. I have thought about this a fair bit, and thought about eventually turning this into a "source-available" model (but not yet, I'd at least like to be fully launched on both App Stores first and have some user-base). There are pros and cons to that. At the end of the day, if you install an app from the App Store, you place trust in the developer. App Store Review only goes so far (e.g. look at Epic sneaking in an alternate payment system). Even if I made source available, the typical user has no guarantee that it matches the binary they're installing from the App Store.

I've also thought about starting with an OAuth scope that allows all operations except permanently deleting email, and asking the user to re-authenticate and upgrade their scope the first time they try to permanently delete something. This is a little awkward from the user experience, though. Maybe burying this as a fallback mechanism during the onboarding flow is an option.

General reputation-building is probably the right place to start.

Re: Show HN: Mimestream, a native macOS email client for Gmail

#239

Post by k2enemy »

jpwgarrison wrote: post #130
leokennis wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was still on Gmail in 2012 or so (?) I really really loved that app! Actually, I’d easily pay $25 or even more for a similar app, for Fastmail.

Mailmate at https://freron.com/ is fantastic. My only gripe is that it is Mac-only, so I can't use it on my work desktop. (linux)

Wow, so strange that they don't provide a single screenshot (that I could find) on their website.
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