Why do self-respecting hackers use Gmail & Co?

I had an Altavista account until they closed their email service. So, I need a reliable provider that wont be swallowed up by a bigger company and change my email address.

I'm hoping once the Raspberry Pi is released, I can get a good personal mail server going again.

Simply put, Gmail provides a compelling user experience:

* fast and accurate search. This is key, and I don't know of a single desktop email client that even comes close to providing a decent search feature. Decent here means "answer full-text queries accurately within a second or so". I didn't realize how useful this was until switching to Gmail; now I have it, I can't switch back. I don't even bother organizing my email more than a minimal amount any more, I just search for things when I need them.

* remote access is also key. I regularly access the internet from at least 4 different devices, on at least 3 different operating systems. Sometimes I do so while traveling. Gmail makes this convenient --- all I need is a web browser. IMAP need not apply --- I found IMAP appallingly slow last time I tried it.

Because we're lazy.

you give away control over your personal data

Yes, and if my data disappeared tomorrow, I'd be pretty pissed off. But since Gmail has a sort of critical mass, it would be likely that other people would lose data too. Lots of pissed off users would tarnish Google's reputation and it's in their interest to avoid that.

you put your personal data within the U.S. jurisdiction

A lot more than my email is within that jurisdiction and is much more important -- like my money, family, and possessions.

Besides, I'm a hacker. If I want to send something sensitive, I'll be smarter than sending it over SMTP and logging it via Gmail.

you give Google not only the social web information who mails whom, but also the full content of that communication

Yep, they data-mine my email anonymously, but they try to not be evil about it. There are much more nefarious groups tracking my behavior, too. Besides, the group effort cuts down spam.