Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Proton Mail gets a desktop app for encrypted email and calendar

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 100 posts

Re: Proton Mail gets a desktop app for encrypted email and calendar

#71

Post by teekert »

fifteen1506 wrote: post #59
teekert wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm on Linux and elecron apps are always good news for me, because I know I won't be left out ;)

Unless you're using Evernote. Private Beta for Evernote for Linux and afterwards..... An email saying they are stopping the development of Evernote Linux :) PS: Electron, AFAIK.

Damn, that's some low effort for Linux people. Well I’m using Obsidian. They’re on some old version of electron. Which is annoying but it works well other than that it requires some exception in my Nix config.

Re: Proton Mail gets a desktop app for encrypted email and calendar

#72

Post by acdha »

carlosjobim wrote: post #53
hollerith wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>laggy garbage apps if you don't have the latest machine. Does not describe Youtube.com or VSCode in my experience.

If you're on an Intel MacBook, using YouTube Music is a miserable experience. As for YouTube.com itself, it's okay, but FreeTube is significantly more responsive. VSCode was more laggy than native competitors on my machine. Especially when selecting text. Maybe our tolerance for lag is different? I know a ton of people swear by VSCode, but when an app has bad latency on basic interface functions it just throws me off…

> VSCode was more laggy than native competitors on my machine. Especially when selecting text. Maybe our tolerance for lag is different?

This is interesting because when I measured that a couple years ago it was one of the fastest options, right up with the native apps. I wonder whether there’s something like display scaling or an extension responsible for the difference.

Re: Proton Mail gets a desktop app for encrypted email and calendar

#73

Post by waynesonfire »

dangond wrote: post #8

Out of curiosity, what makes people prefer desktop apps for mail over just visiting the browser version? The idea of downloading a desktop app for something I can do in the browser makes no sense to me. At least on mobile, the ergonomics of apps tend to make the experience better than the mobile-web version.

I am in control of the update roadmap of applications that run on my system.

Re: Proton Mail gets a desktop app for encrypted email and calendar

#74

Post by tlivolsi »

mortallywounded wrote: post #64

I've been using Proton for my businesses for years. I have a legacy visionary plan that is _very_ generous based on current limits/prices. I don't have any plans on going anywhere else! My only gripe has been searching email is a pain.. you need to download/index the data locally (due to encryption on the server), and the search quality isn't great. I am confident they will improve the search algorithm/filters in tim…

They now have an option to enable searching message body text if you click the search bar in the web client.

Re: Proton Mail gets a desktop app for encrypted email and calendar

#75

Post by odiroot »

jorvi wrote: post #31
eviks wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is telegram Electron if it's https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop C++/QT?

Thanks, for letting me know, edited! Its performance has always felt very "webby" to me. Goes to show native is not a silver bullet for all our UI responsiveness woes :)

It's very snappy for me on Plasma. One of the fastest apps actually.

Re: Proton Mail gets a desktop app for encrypted email and calendar

#76

Post by havaloc »

plehoux wrote: post #6
miroljub wrote: post #2

Let's hope it's not just another Electron-based abomination.

CEO at Missive and proud developer of an electron based email client, I would love for you to try it and judge it's speed. It might change your opinion.

I am a very happy Missive user and have no qualms about their desktop client. I kind of knew it was likely Electron, but it is so performant that it really didn't cross my mind that it was non-native. People bashing Electron apps is just a trope these days; like anything else, there are good ones and bad ones.

Re: Proton Mail gets a desktop app for encrypted email and calendar

#77

Post by haswell »

mngdtt wrote: post #15
haswell wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Webmail requires an active Internet connection. A desktop client lets me work in more environments/situations, and acts as a kind of local backup/cache of my communications. It also makes focusing on email easier. I dislike having to dive into tab sprawl to read/write email.

webmail works fine without an internet connection, gmail does it. You need to write a PWA.

I should clarify that I meant "webmail" in general, and meant to answer the spirit of the broader question about why people prefer thick clients over web clients. Most web clients aren't great offline, but a "YMMV" does seem necessary here.

With that said, while I don't know much about the particulars of the Proton web client and how it handles offline access, I'd still prefer a client that treats all mail the same way, regardless of provider, and that I can manage locally/migrate to a new computer/back up to my own NAS, etc.

Re: Proton Mail gets a desktop app for encrypted email and calendar

#78

Post by Night_Thastus »

dangond wrote: post #8

Out of curiosity, what makes people prefer desktop apps for mail over just visiting the browser version? The idea of downloading a desktop app for something I can do in the browser makes no sense to me. At least on mobile, the ergonomics of apps tend to make the experience better than the mobile-web version.

For me, I generally prefer dedicated apps to a browser if possible. They tend to be more functional and less burdened down by being general-purpose software.

It's also a more controlled environment. I tend to run a lot of custom browser settings, mountains of addons, etc. I know that my desktop mail app won't be affected by those.

Re: Proton Mail gets a desktop app for encrypted email and calendar

#79

Post by Night_Thastus »

bravetraveler wrote: post #10
dangond wrote: post #8

Out of curiosity, what makes people prefer desktop apps for mail over just visiting the browser version? The idea of downloading a desktop app for something I can do in the browser makes no sense to me. At least on mobile, the ergonomics of apps tend to make the experience better than the mobile-web version.

I use a mail client for offline access, backups, and faster search I stopped using Proton largely because the bridge was unreliable - this may have kept me around My browser does too much already, too. I appreciate actual applications that have an identity beyond a favicon

Weird - bridge has worked flawlessly for me for the last couple of years. I use Thunderbird with it. They had clear instructions on how to configure it in just a couple of clicks and I haven't had to mess with it since then.

My ONLY complaint is that if I launch Thunderbird before Bridge has finished, it won't connect. That can be fixed by waiting first, or opening the app on a schedule, or just closing and re-opening it. (I choose to use a scheduled app open)

Re: Proton Mail gets a desktop app for encrypted email and calendar

#80

Post by ttt3ts »

politelemon wrote: post #68
grammers wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tutanota has got a Linux app, and the Android app is available on F-Droid. I love what both companies are trying to achieve with building private ecosystems, but for me Linux must always come first. Everyone who loves privacy has switched to Linux by now.

I use Linux as a litmus test, is that the term, to see how serious a company is about privacy. Without a Linux presence, it's privacy marketing or just lip service. I might still use the product on another OS simultaneously, but I need to know that the control point exists.

They have a way to run thunderbird by running a local bridge. I don't really want their desktop client anyway. I do use their android app which is decent.

I only use Linux and I am happy with proton.

Post reply on HN