Because we could fu*n care less about what web mail provider we use, and Gmail is comfortable enough.
Why do self-respecting hackers use Gmail & Co?
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Re: Why do self-respecting hackers use Gmail & Co?
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Get your own domain?
[deleted]
I'm not sure about the "more professional" comment - gordon@shephard.org looks fine to my eyes. Regardless, lots more useful shorter domains than that are available - for example, mohene.{com,net,org} all appear to be available.
Re: Why do self-respecting hackers use Gmail & Co?
#13Because email sucks. Hosting email sucks. Email clients suck. (Bonus: email spam sucks). On Gmail it sucks a bit less.
I'm sorry for myself in the first place, but until I can code my dream of an email killer (or email client fwiw) that does not suck, avoid making my eyes bleed (and make it a success...) I can't avoid gmail.
Re: Why do self-respecting hackers use Gmail & Co?
#14Re: Why do self-respecting hackers use Gmail & Co?
#15So why is there such a high degree of Gmail usage among those groups? 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…
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.
You're picturing some massive server failure, but not the more likely case of your Google account being disabled for any random reason, which has happened to more than a few people. As Gmail gains more users, you become that much less important to them.
Re: Why do self-respecting hackers use Gmail & Co?
#16Funny. I just asked for alternatives to Gmail and other hosted software on the Richard Stallman post http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3551345
Harald's suggestions boil down to
- share the administrative and financial effort with friends
- use hosting form NGOs or non-profits
- use small companies and ISPs
Lastly, what do you think of a home appliance (basically a server the size of a router with a web interface) that people could install in their home to host some of their important data. Obviously it wouldn't be reliable enough for Email, but might be good enough for docs, password hosting, bookmarks, contact list, etc...
Re: Why do self-respecting hackers use Gmail & Co?
#171. Rich webmail is an absolute must for me. I use too many different computers from too many different places for anything else to be remotely practical at this point.
2. No open source webmail servers that I've seen come close to Gmail's functionality, and I don't have time to write one that is.
3. Even if there was/I did, I couldn't get the spam filtering to anything like Google's level even in theory since I don't have nearly as much data to work on.
Re: Why do self-respecting hackers use Gmail & Co?
#18Until recently the GMail web interface was simply unmatched. When GMail first shipped, their conversation view was so far ahead of what anyone was doing on the web or in a fat client. I don't try out as many email platforms as I used to, but from what I have seen, it's still the best implementation of conversation view available.
Additionally, you hinted at the other main reason I use GMail in your first bullet point: "Control over your own data means you own it, you have it on your hard disk, it is not on somebody else's storage medium."
Sure, this means Google has access. But it also means I don't have to find a way to make that data accessible to me everywhere I want it to be. I don't have to pay for the storage. It's a solved problem... and available at a great price point ($FREE).
I trust google slightly further than I can throw them, so for now this is an okay deal.
Re: Why do self-respecting hackers use Gmail & Co?
#19So why is there such a high degree of Gmail usage among those groups? 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…
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. You're picturing some massive server failure, but not the more likely case of your Google account being disabled for any random reason, which has happened to more than a few people. As Gmail gains more users, you become that much less important to t…
Something like that happened to me - my account (everything, not only Gmail) was suddenly inaccessible. However, a quick email to support and within 12 hours they sent me a link where I entered three emails I wrote to recently... that's it, password reset, account reactivated... I think they're getting better at handling these situations.
Re: Why do self-respecting hackers use Gmail & Co?
#20So why is there such a high degree of Gmail usage among those groups? 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…
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. You're picturing some massive server failure, but not the more likely case of your Google account being disabled for any random reason, which has happened to more than a few people. As Gmail gains more users, you become that much less important to t…
Back up your email! Just because your data is in the cloud doesn't mean you shouldn't make a backup.
I just run getmail which retrieves mail via Gmail's IMAP interface every now and then. If Gmail went away tomorrow, I wouldn't be _that_ sad.