[deleted]
Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
321–330 of 475 posts
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I'll just set up my own email system at this point, call it a learning experience and never be exposed to the rest of whatever was in Google Apps. And? Free users threatening to leave are hilarious (even better when they campaign against ad targeting and AdBlock everything). Google's decision pretty clearly signals that users like you aren't worth it to the company any more than Google Apps are worth $50 to you. Don…
I use Google Apps because I want to use GMail, but with my own domain. That's it. I'm not an enterprise. I don't need more support than regular GMail users. I don't have special needs, like managing what services are allowed. I just don't want a @gmail.com address. I see people here defending this move, but think of how services like Google+ make mandatory an email address that's managed by Google. That email address…
If that's all you want, go to nearlyfreespeech, set up your domain there, and tell it to forward emails to your gmail account. Your gmail account then can send email under that name. I did it for quite a while.
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#323Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#324The free Google Apps was perfect for families: give each kid a nice kid@familyname.com and no problem with the silly 18 year limit that gmail has. The shared calendars work great in our family too. It's certainly not worth $50 per year because the little ones get maybe 1 email a month from grandma. Since Google does not allow kids on gmail, where should families go now?
I never thought about using Google Apps like this. It actually sounds pretty cool to be honest. If my whole family was using it, then I'd probably consider paying $50/year for the service.
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#325Contrarian view... by offering One could argue that the removal of the free tier at this point is simply because they've created an entrenched position, but one could also suggest that this creates a modicum of opportunity for another player to try to enter this space. Certainly until today the $ size of the addressable market in the small business email space was practically $0 given Google's position. [discuss :)]
Still, $50/user/year doesn't give you that much room for manoeuvre as a startup...
[deleted]
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do this. It's not easy, but it's not as bad as most of the comments here would lead you to believe. If you have the wherewithal to run things on a server it's definitely within reach, albeit probably not a cost-effective way to spend your time. Let me make a few recommendations. I'm not a sysadmin by trade but I know a few things you can do that will improve your lot in life running mail. - Postfix and Dovecot. The…
Do you still need to worry about SSH brute force attacks if you disable password-based login?
You only have to worry about them anyway if you have crappy passwords or stupid users.
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you still need to worry about SSH brute force attacks if you disable password-based login?
You only have to worry about them anyway if you have crappy passwords or stupid users.
Ah, ok. Thanks.
(I ask because I'm still trying to get an idea of just how vulnerable your garden-variety server is, user stupidity aside)
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
And? You want this to be free? It clearly costs money.
How so? It's essentially the same service as gmail, only with a different domain. The incremental cost to them is zero, and they make the same revenue as they do from a gmail user.
A gmail user advertises gmail every time they send a mail. Your own domain does not. Its a mass market product. Having your own domain is not.
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#329Contrarian view... by offering One could argue that the removal of the free tier at this point is simply because they've created an entrenched position, but one could also suggest that this creates a modicum of opportunity for another player to try to enter this space. Certainly until today the $ size of the addressable market in the small business email space was practically $0 given Google's position. [discuss :)]
Same with Google Reader. After they shut down Google Reader social features most heavy users flock to newly created services. When Google Reader was social & free (and without ads) it wasn't perfect but it was good enough to destroy competition.
What are these new services? I seriously can't find anything that's even comparable.
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
by cutting off free users they just opened themselves to getting undercut by a smaller company that can offer fewer, cheaper, targeted options. I just wanted an email for my domain and that's not worth 50 bucks a year. I'll just set up my own email system at this point, call it a learning experience and never be exposed to the rest of whatever was in Google Apps.
I do this. It's not easy, but it's not as bad as most of the comments here would lead you to believe. If you have the wherewithal to run things on a server it's definitely within reach, albeit probably not a cost-effective way to spend your time. Let me make a few recommendations. I'm not a sysadmin by trade but I know a few things you can do that will improve your lot in life running mail. - Postfix and Dovecot. The…
+1 for this.
I've run my own mail server for 15 years, since I got my first permanent connection. I host on the end of it as I have a large distrust of "the cloud".
It is cost effective for me as it has increased my merchantable skill portfolio. I've ended up designing some mail systems (50k+ users) for some large ISPs in the past thanks to my accumulated knowledge.
Debian is probably the easiest to get off the ground - it's pretty much "sudo aptitude install postfix dovecot" and follow the instructions. I was a FreeBSD user but primarily due to apathy, I tend to use Debian.
This is about to change however, when FreeBSD supports the raspberry pi as it's a much lower memory and power footprint device so some of FreeBSD's simplifications and optimisations will assist there.
For me, a Raspberry Pi with a 32 gig SD card plugged into my 12Mbit connection will suffice for the 18 users and 5 domains via IMAP that are currently being hosted on a much larger machine. Cost to me: $40-50. No brainer.