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1. Please consider using a proper mail client: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_email_clients https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_email_clie

1. Please consider using a proper mail client: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_email_clients https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_email_clients 2. Please consider avoiding Google (and Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple) as your email provider, due to their mass surveillance practices, both for commercial ad targeting and for US government political policing. There are several other reasonable webmail providers, if you really can't give up the web interface.

rtpg 5y ago
Basically no desktop client works as well as the gmail web app (especially when it comes to search). I use the mail client on iOS out of principle but still end up opening the gmail app when I actually need to find something. A state actor will have less trouble breaking into a mail server I run, and I don’t really believe too much in the idea that other countries apart from the US are immune to police overreach. Signed: someone who has multiple email addresses, has tried all the fancy alternatives (fastmail etc) and who desperately wants this stuff to work because having 3 web tabs to check email is annoying.
- kiwijamo 5y ago
  At work I use the macOS Desktop edition of Outlook for my work O365 account and I've found searching to be pretty good and quite fast. I'm pretty sure it just searches the local cache hence the speed. It's pretty good at suggesting email addresses when I type someones name so I can usually quickly find emails from a certain person just by typing the first characters of their name and pressing return when it finds the correct address.
  - tacker2000 5y ago
    Outlook on mac uses Spotlight search internally
- fc_throwaway 5y ago
  > A state actor will have less trouble breaking into a mail server I run Only if they have a good reason to target you, personally. But if we are talking about mass surveillance, attacking a large provider is incredibly *cheaper*: spend one million dollars on 0-days to gain access to one million mailboxes, or one billion to intercept submarine cables and backdoor CPUs and gain access to one billion mailboxes. There is no way to attack somebody's personal, custom mailserver with a budget of $1.
- interactivecode 5y ago
  If you’re on mac mimestream is really good: https://mimestream.com/ https://mimestream.com/
- rini17 5y ago
  KMail (on KDE on Linux desktop) search is instant. Pity the Akonadi framework under it needs more love to iron out its bugs. I suffer web GMail only when not at my workstation.
  - rtpg 5y ago
    Yeah my problem has been fast search that just is wrong. Like even exact keyword searches. I’m sure it’s something about my configurations but every time I mess around to figure it out it doesn’t work. Generally my use of email is “look at stuff from right now” or “look at stuff from 6+ months ago” (Here “wrong” means “does not find the email I am looking for”. Usually a failure mode of just not showing much of anything)
- einpoklum 5y ago
  > Basically no desktop client works as well as the gmail web app (especially when it comes to search). I would actually make the opposite statement, i.e. generally, webmail clients are significantly inferior to desktop clients in most respects: Feature set, responsiveness, flexibility etc. And of course, being potentially somewhat secure, as opposed to guaranteed no-security with webmail. As for search functionality - I'm not sure you're right, but I'll grant you that some webmail providers, like Google, provide speedy search.
taeric 5y ago
Back when I could use emacs for email, I was quite happy. Unfortunately, I have the advanced protection on in my Gmail account, so I haven't figured how to get that back, yet. App passwords aren't allowed on my account. I have considered moving email accounts, but also don't have enough motivation for all that entails.
- einpoklum 5y ago
  > I have the advanced protection on in my Gmail account Well, Google has your email, to read and use and pass on, so I'm not quite sure what this "advanced protection" can mean.
- tlavoie 5y ago
  I think you can get most of the benefits of the enhanced protection but setting specific features yourself instead of the one "do everything" flag. I have 2FA required on regular logins for example, which can be a Yubikey or authenticator app token. At the same time, I have app passwords, used by my emacs-based email setup. Mu4e gives me instant search-based access to my saved email, and pretty good security elsewhere. Is that an option?
  - taeric 5y ago
    It is tempting. I like the stupid heavy locked down nature of no app passwords, for the time being.
    - tlavoie 5y ago
      That's a valid choice too, to be sure. As long as you know there are options.

rtpg 5y ago

Basically no desktop client works as well as the gmail web app (especially when it comes to search). I use the mail client on iOS out of principle but still end up opening the gmail app when I actually need to find something. A state actor will have less trouble breaking into a mail server I run, and I don’t really believe too much in the idea that other countries apart from the US are immune to police overreach. Signed: someone who has multiple email addresses, has tried all the fancy alternatives (fastmail etc) and who desperately wants this stuff to work because having 3 web tabs to check email is annoying.

kiwijamo 5y ago
At work I use the macOS Desktop edition of Outlook for my work O365 account and I've found searching to be pretty good and quite fast. I'm pretty sure it just searches the local cache hence the speed. It's pretty good at suggesting email addresses when I type someones name so I can usually quickly find emails from a certain person just by typing the first characters of their name and pressing return when it finds the correct address.
- tacker2000 5y ago
  Outlook on mac uses Spotlight search internally
fc_throwaway 5y ago
> A state actor will have less trouble breaking into a mail server I run Only if they have a good reason to target you, personally. But if we are talking about mass surveillance, attacking a large provider is incredibly *cheaper*: spend one million dollars on 0-days to gain access to one million mailboxes, or one billion to intercept submarine cables and backdoor CPUs and gain access to one billion mailboxes. There is no way to attack somebody's personal, custom mailserver with a budget of $1.
interactivecode 5y ago
If you’re on mac mimestream is really good: https://mimestream.com/ https://mimestream.com/
rini17 5y ago
KMail (on KDE on Linux desktop) search is instant. Pity the Akonadi framework under it needs more love to iron out its bugs. I suffer web GMail only when not at my workstation.
- rtpg 5y ago
  Yeah my problem has been fast search that just is wrong. Like even exact keyword searches. I’m sure it’s something about my configurations but every time I mess around to figure it out it doesn’t work. Generally my use of email is “look at stuff from right now” or “look at stuff from 6+ months ago” (Here “wrong” means “does not find the email I am looking for”. Usually a failure mode of just not showing much of anything)
einpoklum 5y ago
> Basically no desktop client works as well as the gmail web app (especially when it comes to search). I would actually make the opposite statement, i.e. generally, webmail clients are significantly inferior to desktop clients in most respects: Feature set, responsiveness, flexibility etc. And of course, being potentially somewhat secure, as opposed to guaranteed no-security with webmail. As for search functionality - I'm not sure you're right, but I'll grant you that some webmail providers, like Google, provide speedy search.

taeric 5y ago

Back when I could use emacs for email, I was quite happy. Unfortunately, I have the advanced protection on in my Gmail account, so I haven't figured how to get that back, yet. App passwords aren't allowed on my account. I have considered moving email accounts, but also don't have enough motivation for all that entails.

einpoklum 5y ago
> I have the advanced protection on in my Gmail account Well, Google has your email, to read and use and pass on, so I'm not quite sure what this "advanced protection" can mean.
tlavoie 5y ago
I think you can get most of the benefits of the enhanced protection but setting specific features yourself instead of the one "do everything" flag. I have 2FA required on regular logins for example, which can be a Yubikey or authenticator app token. At the same time, I have app passwords, used by my emacs-based email setup. Mu4e gives me instant search-based access to my saved email, and pretty good security elsewhere. Is that an option?
- taeric 5y ago
  It is tempting. I like the stupid heavy locked down nature of no app passwords, for the time being.
  - tlavoie 5y ago
    That's a valid choice too, to be sure. As long as you know there are options.