Okay - what are the real alternatives to gmail?
-Outlook.com
-Ymail.com
-Hushmail.com
-Fastmail.fm
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Of the above - the only one I've heard great things about is fastmail.
Can anyone else add to this list? (I'll try to update it).
-Outlook.com
-Ymail.com
-Hushmail.com
-Fastmail.fm
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Of the above - the only one I've heard great things about is fastmail.
Can anyone else add to this list? (I'll try to update it).
Compared to Google's rather cryptic UI (which has gotten even more cryptic over the years), Outlook UI is refreshingly simple and clear.
Shiny new SSDs allowing us to serve the entire last week's email of every user from SSD so that first page view is always lightning fast cost money.
We think that's worth 11 cents per day (Enhanced account).
One question - how is customer support?
Some people realise that free services have disadvantages - ads, lack of customer support, restrictions on use, etc.
GMail has some great features, but I fully understand some people wanting to move away to other solutions.
So I'll just wait a little longer, until something like Mailpile or some other usable e-mail service using DarkMail protocol or something better comes along, before I switch.
Do I think Gmail's UI could use a major overhaul? Sure. But I'm not going to switch because of that, after using it for years. But as I said, I would switch for something more secure.
Outlook would be the last e-mail service I'd ever switch to. They even gave NSA pre-encryption Outlook data [1], according to Snowden's leaks. That's beyond unacceptable, especially when they promise their users "security and privacy". Security and privacy are obviously just a joke to Microsoft, that's only useful to them in TV ads.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-c...
Here are the more important bits about Outlook:
> Outlook.com encryption unlocked even before official launch
> Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal
> The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail;
> Microsoft also worked with the FBI's Data Intercept Unit to "understand" potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases
> Within five months, the documents explain, Microsoft and the FBI had come up with a solution that allowed the NSA to circumvent encryption on Outlook.com chats
You want end to end security, use GPG. Otherwise accept that your email just isn't that interesting in the first place (or that you expect rule of law to prevent it's disclosure).
Just like everyone else - the only reason we know about Microsoft is because that information was leaked. The only way to break from that is to run your own SMTP server and have all your friends run their own SMTP server.
Thinking that those argument can be used as a deciding point between different webmail/email providers is either insane or ignorant (unless said provider resides somewhere like Russia, on an oil rig or in space). Snowden already leaked documents indicating the NSA completely compromised the Google network[1].
The only way to securely communicate over the internet is with something such as IM with a technology like OTR Messaging[2]. You are lying to yourself if you think anyone else has the remote semblance of secure.
[1]: http://rt.com/usa/nsa-secretly-access-yahoo-google-982/ [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-the-Record_Messaging
That is what I do. For me, gmail is only an easy way to aggregate email from separate accounts and chat with friends on gmail.
At home I use my trusty Thunderbird.
Yes you are right about your remark, but as I said, I am lazy and rather have Google servers do spam filtering and email aggregation than doing it myself with SpamAssassin.
I got to a point where I rather spend evenings with family and friends than coding.
99% of those emails stay on my other email accounts when I disable pulling services.
I have not made the jump yet, but it does seem promising.
Documentation is very sparse and in some cases out of date. Even sign-up was problematic for me, since it looks like you are forced to have a PayPal account (you don't, and can use PayPal as the payment processor only).
I had to contact support to ask for help signing up, and the steps they gave me were not possible to follow. Options for a bank transfer payment simply did not appear until many hours later. Imagine you added an item to your cart in Amazon and when you went to check out it was empty. Delete & re-add, still empty. Wait 8 hours, come back, still empty and no way to complete the purchase. Randomly, the item finally shows up the next day.
I got through it finally and switched MX records. I logged in to the webmail interface 2 hours later and had errors 'Server Error: SELECT: Mailbox does not exist' then later 'An error occured(sic). An error occurred while saving'. Another support ticket, emails inbound bouncing, and no reply for three hours and I was all done with MyKolab.
I still want a service like this and am actively looking but a big part of it is the product has to look totally professional and the company must have their shit together. Let's face it, if your goal is privacy and the adversaries are Google and random three-letter agencies you have got to inspire confidence and this company is a long, long way off.