4 ms·

I don't think it's malicious. Running mail servers and filtering spam is not easy.

by eli 12y ago

bhauer 12y ago
Which ironically is the reason I most often hear from Gmail advocates/apologists for why they advocate Gmail over running your own e-mail server. I don't disagree. E-mail is a mess. Still, on the whole, for any person or organization with modest technical chops, I feel the freedom and decentralization (which is a positive for the entire ecosystem) is reason alone for retaining control by self-hosting.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  It's all about cost/benefit analysis. Maintaining an e-mail server and not getting overwhelmed by spam is hard; making sure you your e-mails will be received is even harder. Most of small businesses or organizations simply don't have resources to do that, if you count in the value lost when business e-mails get flagged as spam. Decentralization is cool and all, but until we have some kind of self-contained, easy to deploy and maintain solution for e-mail servers, it's hard to me to recommend anything other than GMail to people - especially that typical small company or organization has a lifespan that's shorter than Google, so they don't get any important benefit from decentralization.
  - danieldk 12y ago
    it's hard to me to recommend anything other than GMail to people There are other companies that offer e-mail services, without the embrace, expand, and extinguish strategy that Google seems to follow these days.
    - TeMPOraL 12y ago
      I haven't checked the new Outlook recently; maybe it's good. But all others that I know offer subpar service and honestly, look like crap. UX is important. For example, I cringe whenever someone makes me to use Roundcube-based webmail.
      - danieldk 12y ago
        Fastmail has a nice UI, is fast, contributes to the open source Cyrus IMAP service (among other projects) and has business accounts.
      - larrymcp 12y ago
        Yeah Roundcube's look definitely needs some help. Last year I did choose Roundcube for our webmail, but I spent several days altering its appearance so that it would look semi-professional. I started with their new theme called "Larry" and then corrected the fonts, colors, graphics, and certain element sizing decisions.
guelo 12y ago
Google has attempted to kill open protocols like xmpp and RSS in order to lock people into their services. Why is it so crazy to think they could be trying with GMail?
- eli 12y ago
  Not crazy, just unlikely.

I don't think it's malicious. Running mail servers and filtering spam is not easy.

by eli 12y ago

I don't think it's malicious. Running mail servers and filtering spam is not easy.

Which ironically is the reason I most often hear from Gmail advocates/apologists for why they advocate Gmail over running your own e-mail server. I don't disagree. E-mail is a mess. Still, on the whole, for any person or organization with modest technical chops, I feel the freedom and decentralization (which is a positive for the entire ecosystem) is reason alone for retaining control by self-hosting.

TeMPOraL 12y ago
It's all about cost/benefit analysis. Maintaining an e-mail server and not getting overwhelmed by spam is hard; making sure you your e-mails will be received is even harder. Most of small businesses or organizations simply don't have resources to do that, if you count in the value lost when business e-mails get flagged as spam. Decentralization is cool and all, but until we have some kind of self-contained, easy to deploy and maintain solution for e-mail servers, it's hard to me to recommend anything other than GMail to people - especially that typical small company or organization has a lifespan that's shorter than Google, so they don't get any important benefit from decentralization.
- danieldk 12y ago
  it's hard to me to recommend anything other than GMail to people There are other companies that offer e-mail services, without the embrace, expand, and extinguish strategy that Google seems to follow these days.
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    I haven't checked the new Outlook recently; maybe it's good. But all others that I know offer subpar service and honestly, look like crap. UX is important. For example, I cringe whenever someone makes me to use Roundcube-based webmail.
    - danieldk 12y ago
      Fastmail has a nice UI, is fast, contributes to the open source Cyrus IMAP service (among other projects) and has business accounts.
    - larrymcp 12y ago
      Yeah Roundcube's look definitely needs some help. Last year I did choose Roundcube for our webmail, but I spent several days altering its appearance so that it would look semi-professional. I started with their new theme called "Larry" and then corrected the fonts, colors, graphics, and certain element sizing decisions.

guelo 12y ago

Google has attempted to kill open protocols like xmpp and RSS in order to lock people into their services. Why is it so crazy to think they could be trying with GMail?

eli 12y ago
Not crazy, just unlikely.