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Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

giuliomagnifico.blog

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Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#21

Post by mantra2 »

lawn wrote: post #15
ryandrake wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This solves the "dependence on Gmail" problem (which is definitely a worthy problem to solve) but not the general "dependence on a particular mail provider" problem. The next step in this walk-down-the-risk-chain is self-hosting on a VPS, where you're now just dependent on your VPS provider, and the next step could be self-hosting on your own metal, where you're now just dependent on your ISP. Happy trails!

Which is why you should buy your own domain so you can easily move to another provider. And backup your emails of course.

Yeah, I was using my own (used Pobox for SMTP in Gmail) — admittedly that made the transition easier.

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#22

Post by indigodaddy »

Anyone considering a move should also look at NameCrane/CraneMail by the crew behind BuyVM. Solid service, incredibly reasonable prices, great community/discord. They are always looking to improve, extremely proactive and reactive to customer feedback and issues. No builtin PGP, but I believe that is out of their control as they use SmarterMail on the backend.

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#23

Post by x0x0 »

I'm going to plug fastmail. Rationale:

(1) tech support that actually reads your messages and replies with a solution demonstrating comprehension of the message that you wrote. Amazing. I've emailed them twice and gotten a great response both times.

(2) it is the best UI I've seen outside gmail;

(3) They have continued actively developing their UI, with nice updates released perhaps in the last 6 weeks.

(4) keyboard shortcuts that work

(5) Instead of inbox 0, I practice inbox 50k and it handles it fine.

(6) I just had a decade-anniversary there and I've never regretted it.

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#25

Post by NoboruWataya »

I have been using mailbox.org for a few years and no complaints. I don't think the web UI is amazing but I use it via Thunderbird so it doesn't affect me.

If you use your own email client and your own domain name, you don't really need to worry about UI with email providers at all (as long as your provider supports those features). And your own domain name makes it easy to move around in future if you need to.

I don't really have any plans to move away from mailbox.org, though I just saw the post about Thunderbird offering an email service in the future. That might actually prompt me to move as I'd like to support the makers of a FOSS email client I've been happily using for years.

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#26

Post by Semaphor »

_mlbt wrote: post #10

I wish there was something like cell phone number porting for email addresses. I don’t know how it would work on the technical side or how you could secure something like that, but the idea of switching email providers is too daunting, so I stay with Gmail despite abandoning all my other Google accounts and services.

You kinda get that with your own domain. I think that's the best you are going to get

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#27

Post by neogodless »

_mlbt wrote: post #10

I wish there was something like cell phone number porting for email addresses. I don’t know how it would work on the technical side or how you could secure something like that, but the idea of switching email providers is too daunting, so I stay with Gmail despite abandoning all my other Google accounts and services.

Not as easy, but could do it in phases:

- set up new email address, hosted where you like

- https://support.google.com/mail/answer/10957?hl=en (forward your email)

- update your email address as many places as you can

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#29

Post by tsimionescu »

lawn wrote: post #15
ryandrake wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This solves the "dependence on Gmail" problem (which is definitely a worthy problem to solve) but not the general "dependence on a particular mail provider" problem. The next step in this walk-down-the-risk-chain is self-hosting on a VPS, where you're now just dependent on your VPS provider, and the next step could be self-hosting on your own metal, where you're now just dependent on your ISP. Happy trails!

Which is why you should buy your own domain so you can easily move to another provider. And backup your emails of course.

I wonder how many more people have lost access to their DNS than to their email account. When you lease a domain (you can't buy domains), you have to periodically renew your lease - this is much more likely to be a problem than typical mail accounts. And if you lose your domain, and someone buys it, they now get all of your email - a much worse situation than Google locking out of your account. And there is no chance to appeal - again much worse than even Google's terrible user help.

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#30

Post by selkin »

> The problem with email is that everything is transmitted in plain text.

That's not a Gmail problem, and no reason to migrate. Some use cases just don't fit email, and for those, we have other, more fitting platforms.

> So, I went with mailbox.org that still offers integrated PGP encryption, and if you want, you can always use external PGP too (which I was already doing with Gmail).

Ok, so now you have two problems.

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