Comment by ShinyCyril | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ShinyCyril | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I didn't miss anything when I left Gmail, but I imagine it depends a lot on how you use email. I switched to Fastmail on my own domain and actually prefer the webmail interface over Gmail.

I mainly use IMAP via Mail.app on my laptop and phone, Pantheon Mail (formerly Geary) on my desktop. I use PGP wherever I can. I haven't received any spam at all yet, so I can't comment on how their spam filters compare to Gmail. I maintain a zero inbox – important stuff gets archived, and everything else is deleted. This means that I don't miss Gmail's search feature as hardly keep any emails. Obviously your mileage may vary here. They also support CalDAV and CardDAV – so all of my notes, contacts, calendar items etc. are synced across my devices.

I've moved from Google completely, and for the most part, I don't really miss them all that much.

- Search -> DuckDuckGo (I do miss Google here – DDG's search results pale in comparison)

- Gmail -> Fastmail

- Maps -> Citymapper and Apple Maps

- Chrome -> Safari on macOS, Firefox on everything else (my experience with FF is a bit 'meh' – it was incredibly laggy on my work laptop, but runs great on my desktop)

I have done the same, but with exception of being a paying customer for Play Movies and Play Music. I also buy extra GDrive storage, and use it for encrypted backups of my laptop (I have backup scripts that ZIP up my writing and work projects, GPG encrypt them, and I manually transfer the files to GDrive.

Google does derive real revenue from me, but not so much via their advertising business.

Edit: FastMail is a very good email service, BTW.

For others interested in Gmail -> Fastmail, Fastmail also has an inbuilt IMAP migration tool:

https://www.fastmail.com/help/receive/migratemail.html

During my migration from GApps (prior to G Suite), I used this tool. I performed an initial migration before changing my MX records, then followed up a few days later with a second (partial) migration to pick up a few slackers.

I found the tool to be fast, comprehensive, and the partial migration was very effective.

I've recently made a similar switch to a few of my 'core' services. Aside from a strong privacy bent, one of my core requirements has been to lessen my dependency on US based companies and infrastructure.

One the search front, I've been finding https://www.startpage.com/ to be a really nice alternative to DDG.

I haven't received any spam at all yet, so I can't comment on how their spam filters compare to Gmail.

I receive more spam in my inbox than in Google Mail (I used Google Apps), but it's not extreme. Typically two or three spam mails per week.

Of course, you get a lot back. As you say, I better web interface and standards-conforming IMAP.

Pretty much the same here, DDG, Fastmail, Firefox, and Here Maps and Movit for mapping/traveling.

Honestly, DDG surpassed google search years ago. I've preferred Firefox for a long time, and Fastmail's UI and service is incredibly superior to GMail. I guess the cost might be the only downside.

Right now, I also try to keep Google as far away from me as I can. Unfortunately, I don't own a domain myself. Have you tried out ProtonMail yourself? If so, do you think that it is a good alternative to a self-hosted server like Fastmail?

Fastmail is not self hosted it's like protonmail a mail provider. I also use fastmail, it's less expensive and more private than gmail

I have not used ProtonMail myself so I can't help you there I'm afraid.

While I use Fastmail with my own domain, it is not self-hosted. My MX records point to Fastmail's servers.

Does Pantheon-Mail support PGP?

It does not. I really hope they add the feature soon – in the meantime I use gpg on the commandline.

I've been tempted to add the support in myself, however I do not have any experience with the elementary codebase or Vala, so a cryptographic system would be a very poor choice for a first project!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com