5 ms·

Why is there no alternative webmail of the caliber of gmail? Is it a difficult problem? Are you serious?

chmars 13y ago
I agree, there is no alternative, there are only other mail services, especially if you use not only Gmail but also Calendar and Contacts.
- Pxtl 13y ago
  You know Microsoft still exists, right? They've been dumping buckets of money into their web-based offerings. Obviously, MS is no less evil than Google. But they exist. If you don't want to use a tacky old Hotmail.com domain name, you can also register for an MS account at Live.com or Outlook.com - this gets you a web Outlook account which gives you email, contacts, SkyDrive (photos and docs/spreadsheets/powerpoint/etc) and calendar. And they don't have their own analogue to Plus and they've abandoned their old messaging systems, so the only "social layer" tedium is an optional integrated sidebar for Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter. It's actually pretty nice. I still use my gmail as my primary because there's not enough reason to switch and I like open-source Android, but MS has built a solid thing there.
  - ternaryoperator 13y ago
    Quite agreed. Microsoft has done a very nice job updating its offering. The paid versions are also very well done.
sillysaurus2 13y ago
I'm old enough to remember that gmail was largely the creation of one person; a person who was neither a programming god nor business guru. It's tempting to think that we could sit down and make an open source gmail clone.
- maxerickson 13y ago
  The reasonably slick web interface is the boring part of the service.
- SilasX 13y ago
  Who?
  - sheetjs 13y ago
    Wikipedia credits Paul Buchheit: > The idea for Gmail was pitched by Rajen Sheth during an interview with Google,[55] and went on to be developed by Paul Buchheit several years before it was announced to the public. Initially the email client was available for use only by Google employees internally. Google announced Gmail to the public on April 1, 2004.
- gus_massa 13y ago
  If you don’t have Paul Buchheit in your list of programming gods, your list must be very short. Anyway, probably the fist version sucked and he used a lot of internal libraries.
- aryastark 13y ago
  My brain hurts from contemplating what you wrote. The point of gmail is that they take the configuration and headache of maintaining a mail server away from you. If you're okay with running your own qmail/sendmail, then there are vastly better open source UI options than gmail. Google didn't invent email. They just run some of the world's largest mail servers as a (mostly) free service.
  - hueving 13y ago
    >there are vastly better open source UI options than gmail. Really? Because I haven't found a web front-end as good. Otherwise I am happy running my own mail server.
    - aryastark 13y ago

I agree, there is no alternative, there are only other mail services, especially if you use not only Gmail but also Calendar and Contacts.

Pxtl 13y ago
You know Microsoft still exists, right? They've been dumping buckets of money into their web-based offerings. Obviously, MS is no less evil than Google. But they exist. If you don't want to use a tacky old Hotmail.com domain name, you can also register for an MS account at Live.com or Outlook.com - this gets you a web Outlook account which gives you email, contacts, SkyDrive (photos and docs/spreadsheets/powerpoint/etc) and calendar. And they don't have their own analogue to Plus and they've abandoned their old messaging systems, so the only "social layer" tedium is an optional integrated sidebar for Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter. It's actually pretty nice. I still use my gmail as my primary because there's not enough reason to switch and I like open-source Android, but MS has built a solid thing there.
- ternaryoperator 13y ago
  Quite agreed. Microsoft has done a very nice job updating its offering. The paid versions are also very well done.

sillysaurus2 13y ago

I'm old enough to remember that gmail was largely the creation of one person; a person who was neither a programming god nor business guru. It's tempting to think that we could sit down and make an open source gmail clone.

maxerickson 13y ago
The reasonably slick web interface is the boring part of the service.
SilasX 13y ago
Who?
- sheetjs 13y ago
  Wikipedia credits Paul Buchheit: > The idea for Gmail was pitched by Rajen Sheth during an interview with Google,[55] and went on to be developed by Paul Buchheit several years before it was announced to the public. Initially the email client was available for use only by Google employees internally. Google announced Gmail to the public on April 1, 2004.
gus_massa 13y ago
If you don’t have Paul Buchheit in your list of programming gods, your list must be very short. Anyway, probably the fist version sucked and he used a lot of internal libraries.
aryastark 13y ago
My brain hurts from contemplating what you wrote. The point of gmail is that they take the configuration and headache of maintaining a mail server away from you. If you're okay with running your own qmail/sendmail, then there are vastly better open source UI options than gmail. Google didn't invent email. They just run some of the world's largest mail servers as a (mostly) free service.
- hueving 13y ago
  >there are vastly better open source UI options than gmail. Really? Because I haven't found a web front-end as good. Otherwise I am happy running my own mail server.
  - aryastark 13y ago