> everyone should have free access to a basic web based email service. Everyone with internet access already has free access to email and to any of several bas

> everyone should have free access to a basic web based email service. Everyone with internet access already has free access to email and to any of several basic web based email services [1], but, to get that free access the owner has to be willing to host their own email server on their own infrastructure. Email (as in SMTP email) is one of the original free and open protocols of the internet. No one is required to have 'google' to have email, although a lot of people prefer to 'let someone else handle the plumbing', which is ok if they understand the ramifications of that choice. Note -- I am deliberately ignoring the sad fact that SPAM has made 'running their own server' much more difficult than it used to be for many. But a lot of that difficulty stems directly from allowing a single giant corporation to hoover up too much of the service, such that the single giant corporation has gotten big enough to start dictating terms to everyone else who is not part of their system. [1] some examples (note: just found these via a search, no suggestion of good/bad is being made, just the availability for free): http://squirrelmail.org/ https://roundcube.net/ https://www.zimbra.com/ This link: https://www.slant.co/topics/1460/~best-self-hosted-webmail-clients https://www.slant.co/topics/1460/~best-self-hosted-webmail-c... claims to reference fourteen clients. This link: https://www.jotform.com/blog/10-ajax-webmail-clients/ https://www.jotform.com/blog/10-ajax-webmail-clients/ lists ten (some overlap with items above).