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Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

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Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#511

Post by bogomipz »

drngdds wrote: post #491
bogomipz wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Organizations like EFF have been historically anti-government ..." Can you provide a citation or examples of this? Being pro-civil liberties does not imply anti-government. Those aren't mutually exclusive. In the US civil liberties are basic freedoms identified in the Bill or Rights and the Constitution. And the Constitution is what established the government in the first place. How is it possible to be pro-civil l…

The Bill of Rights is a set of restrictions on what the government can do. Of course you can support it and be anti-government.

The Bill Rights are amendments "to" the Constitution, the very document that establishes the legitimacy of the government in the first place. How can you accept the legitimacy of the government and be anti-government at the same time?

Even the Anti-Federalists, the group that advocated for the establishment of a Bill of Rights were not anti-government.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#512

Post by openbasic »

ryandrake wrote: post #510
rjzzleep wrote: post #188

For the self-hosted folks there are: https://mailcow.email/ - dockerized, works with multiple domains, sogo for groupware. Compared to mailinabox's single disk, it has 6 docker volumes to keep track of. https://mailu.io/ - dockerized, it has a section on kubernetes deployments, which i find weird, but I guess could make sense for companies https://mailinabox.email/ - no docker, no multiple domains, roundcube, nextclo…

This might be obvious and not need to be mentioned, but if you're self-hosting, don't forget the obvious and often most flexible option: A Linux box directly running plain old Exim (or Postfix, etc.), Dovecot (or Courier, etc.), Spamassassin. No containers, no abstractions, no meta-configuration. I've had this setup for a couple of years now and it's not failed me. Support TLS, SPF, spam checking, DKIM, can support m…

Do you recommend any guide or book on the subject?

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#513

Post by openbasic »

ryandrake wrote: post #510
rjzzleep wrote: post #188

For the self-hosted folks there are: https://mailcow.email/ - dockerized, works with multiple domains, sogo for groupware. Compared to mailinabox's single disk, it has 6 docker volumes to keep track of. https://mailu.io/ - dockerized, it has a section on kubernetes deployments, which i find weird, but I guess could make sense for companies https://mailinabox.email/ - no docker, no multiple domains, roundcube, nextclo…

This might be obvious and not need to be mentioned, but if you're self-hosting, don't forget the obvious and often most flexible option: A Linux box directly running plain old Exim (or Postfix, etc.), Dovecot (or Courier, etc.), Spamassassin. No containers, no abstractions, no meta-configuration. I've had this setup for a couple of years now and it's not failed me. Support TLS, SPF, spam checking, DKIM, can support m…

Also, what's your monthly cost?

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#514

Post by actuallyalys »

nadont8 wrote: post #494
wtetzner wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what does the price of a VPS have to do with anything? I doubt hosting would be their biggest cost.

Why shouldn't hosting be their biggest cost?

Well, think about the VPS you're proposing. Two euros a month is 24€ a year. Even if you're only paying yourself 6€ an hour, I'm skeptical that running an email server for 100 people would require less than four hours per year.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#515

Post by leokennis »

charmides wrote: post #139
bamboozled wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fastmail has been also flawless for me since signing up. Highly recommended.

I think paid email services are a great idea, but $50 a year and 2 GB of storage for Fastmail seems expensive to me. Why not something closer to five or ten bucks a year? Can someone explain to me why this type of pricing makes sense?

I have to say: I like to be charged as much as FastMail charges. It gives me some sense that they will not be out of business or quit in a year or two. I like FastMail to still exist in 50 years.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#516

Post by godelski »

pmorici wrote: post #239
charmides wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think paid email services are a great idea, but $50 a year and 2 GB of storage for Fastmail seems expensive to me. Why not something closer to five or ten bucks a year? Can someone explain to me why this type of pricing makes sense?

The Fastmail pricing tiers are $3, $5, and $9 per month which is $36, $60, and $108 per year respectively. If you look at their primary competition their prices are on par or slightly better. Here is a sampling... Google G Suite: $5, $10, and $25 per month per user. Microsoft: $4, $8, or $12.50 per month per user. ZOHO: $3, $7 per month per user billed yearly. [0] https://gsuite.google.com/pricing.html [1] https://pr…

All the competition shows substantially more storage. Plus they offer other services.

So no, their pricing is not on par.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#517

Post by gknoy »

bogomipz wrote: post #511
drngdds wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Bill of Rights is a set of restrictions on what the government can do. Of course you can support it and be anti-government.

The Bill Rights are amendments "to" the Constitution, the very document that establishes the legitimacy of the government in the first place. How can you accept the legitimacy of the government and be anti-government at the same time? Even the Anti-Federalists, the group that advocated for the establishment of a Bill of Rights were not anti-government.

I take "anti-government" to mean that one is opposed to the actions that the government takes, in some situations, rather than being against the idea of the government. One can believe that a government is legitimate, while also believing that the government's power should be limited. One might argue that this idea is one of the core ideas of American government.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#518

Post by flyGuyOnTheSly »

bad_user wrote: post #314
simfoo wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing to keep in mind about Fastmail is that all their servers are hosted in the US and they have no plan about changing this (I asked). Post-Snowden this means you can be quite sure that all mails will end up being analysed by the US authorities

I'm an European, but I don't mind. First of all when making such a choice, you have to identify who the enemy is. If you're talking about global enemies, like the NSA, then IMO without end-to-end encryption you're screwed. And if you're targeted directly, you're screwed regardless, given they have the capability to use whatever vulnerabilities they can find in your router, your phone, your OS, your browser, etc. If i…

>If I'm being wronged, I've got legal ways to fight back and I don't really care about the NSA.

I believe a National Security Letter would prevent you from ever doing such a thing. [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_security_letter#Conte...

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#519

Post by ryandrake »

openbasic wrote: post #512
ryandrake wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be obvious and not need to be mentioned, but if you're self-hosting, don't forget the obvious and often most flexible option: A Linux box directly running plain old Exim (or Postfix, etc.), Dovecot (or Courier, etc.), Spamassassin. No containers, no abstractions, no meta-configuration. I've had this setup for a couple of years now and it's not failed me. Support TLS, SPF, spam checking, DKIM, can support m…

Do you recommend any guide or book on the subject?

Mostly online searches and reading the software's documentation. Unfortunately there appears to be no site that walks you through the entire process. You'll find "how to set up exim" tutorials and "how to get dovecot working with exim" but so far I have found no overall soup-to-nuts guide that matches my exact configuration.

1. You need your own domain

2. If you're new to Linux, I'd set up something simpler first, like a web server just to familiarize yourself with your domain tools and your distribution's configuration.

3. A good half-way solution for migrating from Gmail is to set your own server as MX for your domain and forward received E-mail to Gmail. That way you can get familiar with setting up your MTA without worrying about delivery. And, you can start encouraging people to start sending mail to your @domain.com address rather than @gmail.com address. I had this set-up for years before taking the plunge and hosting everything myself.

Be warned, Gmail applies very aggressive filtering to your incoming forwarded mail, even before it reaches your "Spam" folder. This was one of the primary reasons I decided to self-host: I was finally able to compare the list of E-mails I received, through looking at my logs, to the E-mails that ended up making it to Gmail. Gmail's (presumably) spam-filtering was filtering out an unacceptable amount of false positives.

4. Set up your host to deliver locally. You'll be able to verify it's working by using standard unix mail tools running on your host.

5. Set up something nicer for delivery like IMAP, and get your favorite mail client to work. I use Dovecot, but there are plenty of options.

6. Any bells and whistles you want. TLS, SPF, DKIM, Spamassassin, multiple domains. I found at first I was getting a massive amount of spam (thanks for fixing this for me for years, Gmail!) but after a few months of training, Spamassassin is very good and I'm back down to not seeing much anymore.

Hope that helps. To your other question. I spend $5 a month for my VPS, and I can host a lot more than E-mail there.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#520

Post by _wmd »

doon123 wrote: post #422
maltalex wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zoho is great for two more reasons: 1. Their free offering comes with support for custom domains, which is pretty unique. 2. There's Zoho.com and Zoho.eu. You can open your account on Zoho.eu if you prefer having your email hosted in the EU.

Hi, you clearly seem to be affiliated with Zoho... Here is your comment from 6 days ago .. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18008334

Parent comment just states facts, why even bother suggesting they're affiliated somehow? Meanwhile I'm not affiliated with Zoho in any way, and can confirm their free service is awesome. I've got 2 custom domains on it and couldn't be happier
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