5 ms·

Proton is not perfect, but nothing is. We need more competition on the internet, and if Proton has a chance to provide an email and storage for an upfront price

by ptero 4y ago

Proton is not perfect, but nothing is. We need more competition on the internet, and if Proton has a chance to provide an email and storage for an upfront price without trying to distract me with ads or pimp my data to advertisers, I want to support them. As a data point, I have been a very happy user of their plus service for the last 3 years.

almet 4y ago
The only thing that bugs me with Proton is that it's still very complicated to integrate with thunderbird (or any mail app?), which makes it practically unusable for my needs. Having a tab always open in my browser for my mail seems so wrong.
- adamhearn 4y ago
  Genuine question, how is a browser tab different than thunderbird? Besides storing a local copy of mail (which is obviously a huge win), I don't see a big difference. If anything I like the web UI better. However, for my uses I simply installed proton bridge + apple mail. It just works with all email services I use.
  - mr_toad 4y ago
    > Genuine question, how is a browser tab different than thunderbird? Different protocols for one thing - HTTP vs IMAP and/or POP/SMTP. Each webmail app does things it’s own way. Webmail conflates the app and the protocol and the provider. Some people prefer to have mail from different providers in a unified app.
- blangk 4y ago
  I find it works very well using the bridge on my Manjaro desktop, and was fine on Debian before that.
  - ptero 4y ago
    I have the same experience, for me it works flawlessly with the bridge, but the bridge itself is a complication. I would prefer a straight imap option (in addition to the bridge option). My 2c.
    - kataklasm 4y ago
      But then you wouldn't have E2EE anymore, and that's kind of their flagship feature. I'm very happy with the Bridge integrated with Neomutt on Fedora Linux.
      - ptero 4y ago
        I agree with that; all I am saying is that I think a fair number of users would be happy with the IMAP access even though it does not provide E2EE benefits, which should not affect those who want to run with the bridge. I think Protonmail started with a privacy-focused business case (for which E2EE is a key feature), but is now expanding into the broader pool of people who want to pay for an ad-free, no-data-scanning email, but are not concerned about targeted spying and prefer the simplicity of a convenient setup. For that crowd, IMAP would make more sense. My 2c.
- BoyBlunder 4y ago
  Their mobile apps are also very lackluster and devoid of basic features. I understand that they are unable to open up to other mail apps due to the encryption, but for the past few years there have been little to no updates to their iOS suite.
  - willis936 4y ago
    They did a facelift of their iOS mail app six months ago and this week.
- noman-land 4y ago
  I agree it's not perfect but they have some pretty great instructions. I've been using the Bridge with thunderbird for multiple accounts and it works awesome.
  - precurse 4y ago
    Yep, me too. I have Thunderbird running in the background essentially as an email backup, but I wind up using the web version more. However Thunderbird and Bridge work extremely well that I forget they're running in parallel. I'm a recent Google GSuite refugee, so it's hard breaking the habit of web based mail I suppose.
- zhfliz 4y ago
  fwiw, there's an unofficial desktop app: https://github.com/vladimiry/ElectronMail https://github.com/vladimiry/ElectronMail
- dgellow 4y ago
  You just need to install the bridge locally, the rest is similar to what you would do for other email providers. What is complicated about it?
- Night_Thastus 4y ago
  I use it with Thunderbird. There is an initial step (you need to set up ProtonMail Bridge) but after that it's seamless. And they have really good instructions for how to do that initial setup.
Terry_Roll 4y ago
There is a silent backlash against Proton, the most obvious is the domain is blocked by the US Antivirus company who scans all UK politicians emails through the UK parliament email address parliament.uk or British politicians are ignoring their constituents, some website contact forms reject protonmail email address as well. So I hope they give Google a run for their money. Edit IF its not politicians ignoring emails, then we have evidence that a private US antivirus companies is illegally interfering in the democratic process of so called allies and you can work this out with mxtoolbox.com, but we all know the US of A views everyone including allies as an enemy, because their actions and occupations speak louder than words! Can send a man to the moon but cant stop a shooter speaks volumes!
- kodah 4y ago
  My company VPN also blocks ProtonMail. I'm not sure exactly why, and I have zero evidence, but I suspect it's because it's the email that a whistleblower used a while back that was featured in congressional testimony.
- jrockway 4y ago
  I've definitely blocked protonmail domains before. The calculus is that 100% of the accounts from that domain are fraud and 0% are legitimate, so it just saves a lot of time to block it. Stops fraud before it even starts. This is, of course, annoying for the 1 legitimate customer mixed in with the billions of bots. But basically, they have an abuse problem that they need to solve. Gmail also has plenty of fraudulent accounts, but it also has a lot of legitimate accounts, so they avoid the *@gmail.com ban. It sucks that people use wide swaths like this, but that's how the cookie crumbles when you have a problem at 3 in the morning that you need to fix now and then go back to bed.
  - Terry_Roll 4y ago
    Well the irony is that Shodan.io also blocks protonmail email accounts and yet Shodan is your goto search engine to launch surgical hack attacks on entities. I known www.urban-automotive.co.uk are losing out on business because they block protonmail accounts as I'm sure many other businesses are! Hitting those who dont understand privacy in the wallet is an easy accomplishment!

by ptero 4y ago

almet 4y ago

The only thing that bugs me with Proton is that it's still very complicated to integrate with thunderbird (or any mail app?), which makes it practically unusable for my needs. Having a tab always open in my browser for my mail seems so wrong.

adamhearn 4y ago
Genuine question, how is a browser tab different than thunderbird? Besides storing a local copy of mail (which is obviously a huge win), I don't see a big difference. If anything I like the web UI better. However, for my uses I simply installed proton bridge + apple mail. It just works with all email services I use.
- mr_toad 4y ago
  > Genuine question, how is a browser tab different than thunderbird? Different protocols for one thing - HTTP vs IMAP and/or POP/SMTP. Each webmail app does things it’s own way. Webmail conflates the app and the protocol and the provider. Some people prefer to have mail from different providers in a unified app.
blangk 4y ago
I find it works very well using the bridge on my Manjaro desktop, and was fine on Debian before that.
- ptero 4y ago
  I have the same experience, for me it works flawlessly with the bridge, but the bridge itself is a complication. I would prefer a straight imap option (in addition to the bridge option). My 2c.
  - kataklasm 4y ago
    But then you wouldn't have E2EE anymore, and that's kind of their flagship feature. I'm very happy with the Bridge integrated with Neomutt on Fedora Linux.
    - ptero 4y ago
      I agree with that; all I am saying is that I think a fair number of users would be happy with the IMAP access even though it does not provide E2EE benefits, which should not affect those who want to run with the bridge. I think Protonmail started with a privacy-focused business case (for which E2EE is a key feature), but is now expanding into the broader pool of people who want to pay for an ad-free, no-data-scanning email, but are not concerned about targeted spying and prefer the simplicity of a convenient setup. For that crowd, IMAP would make more sense. My 2c.
BoyBlunder 4y ago
Their mobile apps are also very lackluster and devoid of basic features. I understand that they are unable to open up to other mail apps due to the encryption, but for the past few years there have been little to no updates to their iOS suite.
- willis936 4y ago
  They did a facelift of their iOS mail app six months ago and this week.
noman-land 4y ago
I agree it's not perfect but they have some pretty great instructions. I've been using the Bridge with thunderbird for multiple accounts and it works awesome.
- precurse 4y ago
  Yep, me too. I have Thunderbird running in the background essentially as an email backup, but I wind up using the web version more. However Thunderbird and Bridge work extremely well that I forget they're running in parallel. I'm a recent Google GSuite refugee, so it's hard breaking the habit of web based mail I suppose.
zhfliz 4y ago
fwiw, there's an unofficial desktop app: https://github.com/vladimiry/ElectronMail https://github.com/vladimiry/ElectronMail
dgellow 4y ago
You just need to install the bridge locally, the rest is similar to what you would do for other email providers. What is complicated about it?
Night_Thastus 4y ago
I use it with Thunderbird. There is an initial step (you need to set up ProtonMail Bridge) but after that it's seamless. And they have really good instructions for how to do that initial setup.

Terry_Roll 4y ago

There is a silent backlash against Proton, the most obvious is the domain is blocked by the US Antivirus company who scans all UK politicians emails through the UK parliament email address parliament.uk or British politicians are ignoring their constituents, some website contact forms reject protonmail email address as well. So I hope they give Google a run for their money. Edit IF its not politicians ignoring emails, then we have evidence that a private US antivirus companies is illegally interfering in the democratic process of so called allies and you can work this out with mxtoolbox.com, but we all know the US of A views everyone including allies as an enemy, because their actions and occupations speak louder than words! Can send a man to the moon but cant stop a shooter speaks volumes!

kodah 4y ago
My company VPN also blocks ProtonMail. I'm not sure exactly why, and I have zero evidence, but I suspect it's because it's the email that a whistleblower used a while back that was featured in congressional testimony.
jrockway 4y ago
I've definitely blocked protonmail domains before. The calculus is that 100% of the accounts from that domain are fraud and 0% are legitimate, so it just saves a lot of time to block it. Stops fraud before it even starts. This is, of course, annoying for the 1 legitimate customer mixed in with the billions of bots. But basically, they have an abuse problem that they need to solve. Gmail also has plenty of fraudulent accounts, but it also has a lot of legitimate accounts, so they avoid the *@gmail.com ban. It sucks that people use wide swaths like this, but that's how the cookie crumbles when you have a problem at 3 in the morning that you need to fix now and then go back to bed.
- Terry_Roll 4y ago
  Well the irony is that Shodan.io also blocks protonmail email accounts and yet Shodan is your goto search engine to launch surgical hack attacks on entities. I known www.urban-automotive.co.uk are losing out on business because they block protonmail accounts as I'm sure many other businesses are! Hitting those who dont understand privacy in the wallet is an easy accomplishment!