> If 15 years ago you made the mistake of wanting gasp a domain for your email, you're basically roped into paying now. Why? What's stopping you (or me, becau

> If 15 years ago you made the mistake of wanting gasp a domain for your email, you're basically roped into paying now. Why? What's stopping you (or me, because I'm also affected) from exporting all data from Google, paying another provider for an e-mail service and changing the DNS settings? Expecting Google to offer free services within their own sphere is one thing -- making gmail a paid service would be absurd, but this is not even close to being the same thing.