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Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

giuliomagnifico.blog

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Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#351

Post by palata »

TranquilMarmot wrote: post #331
palata wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> supports Graphene but there are too many trade-offs there What are the tradeoffs? I have been following GrapheneOS for a while, and it doesn't seem like there are many tradeoffs. > OpenStreetMap is still really hard to use and gives bad directions. OpenStreetMap is a database, and most commercial services that are not Google use it. E.g. Uber or Lyft. You just need to find an app that you like. CoMaps is nice, OSMA…

> What are the tradeoffs? As others point out, my main worry is about banking and NFC. I use NFC payments on my phone a lot, especially for the bus. Getting an Android Smartwatch just for that kind of defeats de-Googling haha. I will probably try out Graphene at some point but that seems like a multi-day project to get it set up, find the tradeoffs, determine if they're worth it, and then potentially switch back to A…

> my main worry is about banking and NFC

This may be useful: https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compa...

> I also worry about the future of Graphene with AOSP going more closed/private

I don't think it's AOSP going more closed, but rather the evolution of the Pixels line. GrapheneOS wants the ability to unlock the bootloader, install their own key and relock the bootloader. Google could technically stop supporting that for the Pixels (just like many (most?) manufacturers do), but they haven't said anything about it.

GrapheneOS has mentioned talks with a major manufacturer. I wonder if it will be a Graphene phone (which sounds very tricky) or if it could be something like Huawei or Samsung offering to unlock/relock the bootloader and committing to providing the features necessary for GrapheneOS. The latter would be amazing.

> OSMAnd was the one I tried and it bordered on unusable.

I love it. But if that's your feeling, definitely try CoMaps: in terms of UX it's on the other end of the spectrum :-).

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#352

Post by palata »

nabakolu wrote: post #348
TranquilMarmot wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What are the tradeoffs? As others point out, my main worry is about banking and NFC. I use NFC payments on my phone a lot, especially for the bus. Getting an Android Smartwatch just for that kind of defeats de-Googling haha. I will probably try out Graphene at some point but that seems like a multi-day project to get it set up, find the tradeoffs, determine if they're worth it, and then potentially switch back to A…

There is also Calyx, which is also a privacy friendly Android distribution. It uses open source versions of Google Services. With my Pixel 8a on Calyx I can use NFC to pay with my Credit Card.

> It uses open source versions of Google Services.

Microg, right? I don't think this is more private than the Google Services, is it? It's just open source, but it can phone home just the same?

> With my Pixel 8a on Calyx

Any reason you haven't tried GrapheneOS, given that you already have a Pixel? I have /e/OS because it's the only alternative Android that runs on my FairPhone 3, but I've come to realise that it's actually worse than the Stock Android in terms of security. I really would like to go with GrapheneOS, and I wish more manufacturers made this possible.

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#353

Post by palata »

BeetleB wrote: post #164
nine_k wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you use GrapheneOS with your bank app? With a digital wallet for NFC cards? With Uber or Lyft? (Asking seriously, not rhetorically.)

Yes, these would be my concerns as well. In the past, I would install custom ROMs. Then I stopped doing that and would only root my device. But of late, way, way too many apps refuse to work if rooted (apps that used to be fine with it before). Now I just accept life as it is.

Using GrapheneOS is not the same thing as rooting, though.

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#354

Post by palata »

jackthetab wrote: post #165
nine_k wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you use GrapheneOS with your bank app? With a digital wallet for NFC cards? With Uber or Lyft? (Asking seriously, not rhetorically.)

This is a question that I rarely see answered but would love to know as well.

Nice answer (not by me) here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44990889

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#356

Post by criticalfault »

lormayna wrote: post #274

I am self-hosting my email. It's a pain in the ass, but software like mox[1] help on keeping things easier. The most tedious part is to setup correctly SPF, DKIM and DMARC and ensure that your IP will be whitelisted. [1] https://www.xmox.nl/

How do you protect your server? Any guides there?

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#357

Post by HumanOstrich »

nine_k wrote: post #282
HumanOstrich wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the process of switching from Gmail to FastMail. They were the only ones who met one of my requirements: Receive all email for all my domains and deliver it to one inbox with labels. I really like that they offer a Gmail migration, including an initial import and _ongoing Inbox sync_. It only syncs the Inbox though, not spam (which is sometimes legit, especially with Gmail) or mail that gets immediately archiv…

> can't migrate stars/icons for emails. (1) Create s label for starred emails, eg "Star-struck". A Unicode star would do if you like it literal. (2) In gmail, search for "is:starred", mark all on the page, then "mark all matching emails". (3) Drop the "Star-struck" tag on them. Now you can migrate it as a normal tag.

Thanks, but I am using multiple variants of the star icons to indicate various states. I know I can manually label and migrate things, it's just not practical for me.

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#358

Post by ternaryoperator »

jesterson wrote: post #267
ternaryoperator wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like you, I am a happy long-term user of Fastmail. In addition to the excellent mail and calendar service, their tech support is top-notch: fast and generally providing the correct answer in their first communication.

How dod you that? I am paying them thousands per year and support is neither good nor fast. And my requests are usually well written as we deal with emails a lot and understand how it works (if you pardon my slight bragging)

I'm surprised to read this. We just email support@[the expected domain name]. Perhaps our queries are simple enough they can be handled easily.

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#359

Post by iszomer »

litmus-pit-git wrote: post #225
onlyhumans wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fastmail is kind of a weird service. If you stop paying they release your email for someone else to take over. Pretty unacceptable this day and age.

The trick is in never ever touching the username@paid-main-provider.tld to give out to anyone. It's just for logging in. My mailbox.org username is literally three random short Engish dict words concatnated by underscores (e.g jet_sit_gill@mailbox.org) just to ensure I'd never share that email with anyone. I only use my domain's email addresses. This way there's ZERO lock, zero fear of them giving my email to someone…

I could never get my domains hosted on sdf.org to work reliably on fastmail. It had briefly worked when MX records were set up but the moment I configured for DKIM and SPF, I haven't been able to get the service back.

Re: Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

#360

Post by daydream »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #116
tsimionescu wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It’s not been a problem for me. The registrars I use are pretty vocal about expiring payment credentials, and if I were really worried they allow stacking multiple methods to fall back on, some of which have their own fallbacks (like PayPal). In theory paying for longer periods in one go could help, but ironically that might make it worse since you’re more likely to forget about a renewal happening 5 or 10 years from…

You can always register the domain for 10 years, and then just keep renewing it every year so you always maintain 9 to 10 years of future paid registration.

Like you, this hasn’t been a problem for me.

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