ProtonMail Bridge is now open source • Hacker News Board

Re: ProtonMail Bridge is now open source

#21

Post by markosaric » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 9:42 AM UTC

Nice to see!

I'm on Gnome Linux and ProtonMail only mention Thunderbird in their docs, but I've made the bridge work with Geary too. Geary is a bit more simple and modern looking email client alternative. See https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Geary

Still I normally end up using the web interface for ProtonMail as it fits my workflow better and only need to have one tab open in my browser. They even have a nicer looking beta which also has an in-built dark theme at https://beta.protonmail.com

Re: ProtonMail Bridge is now open source

#22

Post by desktop-app » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 10:25 AM UTC

markosaric wrote: post #21

Nice to see! I'm on Gnome Linux and ProtonMail only mention Thunderbird in their docs, but I've made the bridge work with Geary too. Geary is a bit more simple and modern looking email client alternative. See https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Geary Still I normally end up using the web interface for ProtonMail as it fits my workflow better and only need to have one tab open in my browser. They even have a nicer looking bet…

> Still I normally end up using the web interface for ProtonMail as it fits my workflow better and only need to have one tab open in my browser. They even have a nicer looking beta which also has an in-built dark theme at https://beta.protonmail.com

Btw, you can have both static beta web client and offline access to the email messages using https://github.com/vladimiry/ElectronMail even being on free account as opposed to Bridge thing. The app also supports "persistent sessions" feature, unlimited full-text search (body content also gets scnned) and other fancy stuff.

Re: ProtonMail Bridge is now open source

#23

Post by julianlam » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 1:04 PM UTC

markosaric wrote: post #21

Nice to see! I'm on Gnome Linux and ProtonMail only mention Thunderbird in their docs, but I've made the bridge work with Geary too. Geary is a bit more simple and modern looking email client alternative. See https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Geary Still I normally end up using the web interface for ProtonMail as it fits my workflow better and only need to have one tab open in my browser. They even have a nicer looking bet…

Thanks for the recommendation re: Geary! I've been wanting to trial desktop email clients for awhile now and Thunderbird just doesn't have the polish I've come to expect.

Gmail, et al., have become so bloated in recent years.

Re: ProtonMail Bridge is now open source

#24

Post by kube-system » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 2:02 PM UTC

antpls wrote: post #14

I applause ProtonMail services and initiatives, it can only be good for us. However why did they develop anything specific? SMTP / IMAP already support secure connection (i believe). Or it could be encapsulated in a secure lower transport protocol. Also I thought there were tons of GPG/PGP extensions for email clients already to read encrypted emails

IMAP, et al, require mail to be unencrypted on the server side; they are only encrypted in-transit.

Re: ProtonMail Bridge is now open source

#25

Post by antpls » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #24

antpls wrote: post #14

I applause ProtonMail services and initiatives, it can only be good for us. However why did they develop anything specific? SMTP / IMAP already support secure connection (i believe). Or it could be encapsulated in a secure lower transport protocol. Also I thought there were tons of GPG/PGP extensions for email clients already to read encrypted emails

IMAP, et al, require mail to be unencrypted on the server side; they are only encrypted in-transit.

Which is why Protonmail uses GPG/PGP for the encrypted ones, I believe. So there should be no reason that we cannot use any mail client with GPG/PGP support.

Re: ProtonMail Bridge is now open source

#26

Post by kube-system » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 7:12 PM UTC

antpls wrote: post #25

kube-system wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMAP, et al, require mail to be unencrypted on the server side; they are only encrypted in-transit.

Which is why Protonmail uses GPG/PGP for the encrypted ones, I believe. So there should be no reason that we cannot use any mail client with GPG/PGP support.

Their service does stuff beyond the basic functions of PGP. That is handled by the bridge, and wouldn't be handled by your favorite flavor of email client and PGP plugin.

One example: if you message another ProtonMail user, all of the PGP functionality is handled automatically. I don't think this would be possible with any other solution.