Aras Pranckevičius

RE: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@runevision/116000179696043824

Gmail has decided to stop supporting fetching email from external accounts, so time to start de-gmailing. It was a good 20 year run!

First attempt, Thunderbird. It feels... slow and janky? And *this* is the most popular free email client?! No wonder gmail took the world by storm.

Mailspring from Rune's thread (thanks!) feels decent, let's see how that goes.

Feb 22 at 5:33pmWeb
Show threadJiří Fiala Total LandscapingFeb 22
@aras this is what I saw on my MBP not too long ago - this was AFTER their alleged major UI redesign. Clean install, first launch.
Show threadPhilip TrettnerFeb 22

@aras I need about 8 mail accounts in my Thunderbird (various company accounts). Every time I reinstall / have a new device, I need to manually set up each of that through the UI wizards. Then a bunch of preferences each. Because the "config" is some garbled js-adjacent nonsense?

I really hope someone proves me wrong and shows how there's some bulk import/export. And no, I do not want to just copy over everything. That doesn't work across OSes.

Show threadFeyterFeb 22
@artificialmind @aras how often do you reinstall your device? 😅
Show threadPhilip TrettnerFeb 22
@feyter @aras dual boot, desktop + laptop, office + home (self-employed, so all are "work"). That's 8 installs and modern systems decay fast enough that I'm on at least 2 reinstalls per year (total, not per device). Yeah in absolute time it's not enough to work on a "fix" for myself, but it's definitely enough emotional nuisance that it leaves a bad taste. I'll definitely take TB over outlook or Gmail any day of the year but it doesn't mean it's painless.
Show threadRaptor Feb 22
@aras honestly even for my own email server I don't even bother with thunderbird, it's too much of a pain in the ass, especially when roundcube is so much easier to set up and basically gives a "gmail but better" interface (at least in my opinion)
Show threadSahnvourFeb 22
@aras sadly mailspring seems to be developped with LLMs
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveFeb 22

@aras @runevision I de-gmailed a few years ago and TB was even worse back then. Settled on Mailbird which was ok on Windows but not great. Decent.

I suspect the reason 3rd party email clients didn’t develop was precisely because everyone was using GMail or Outlook

Show threadAnders StenbergFeb 22
@sinbad @aras @runevision Which mail provider are you using? I've been thinking of trying out something else than gmail but don't know where to go really.
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveFeb 22
@SonnyBonds @aras @runevision I use a tiny little place in Norway called Runbox. They probably wouldn’t appeal to most, their webmail is not as fancy (but I use IMAP anyway) and they’ve had occasional downtime, but I like that they’re hosted completely outside of the US (unlike FastMail), they’re long-term independently owned, and they’re powered entirely by renewables. Not as flash as others but their heart seems in the right place
Show threadAnders StenbergFeb 23
@sinbad @aras @runevision Ah, I've seen those I think. As a Swede I like that it's close to home. Might give it a spin.
Show threadAnders StenbergFeb 23
@sinbad @aras @runevision I think that if I _do_ switch to something else I should probably at the same time get some custom domain for the actual address so I can switch provider without switching address going forward.
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveFeb 23
@SonnyBonds @aras @runevision oh yeah definitely do that
Show threadAnders StenbergFeb 23

@sinbad @aras @runevision It's actually what's been holding me back the most because I have to come up with something. :D

Also a lot of existing mail providers fail the "can I say this verbally to a teacher/bank contact/plumber/whoever and a) they get it without me spelling it out and b) without being embarrassed"

Show threadthomastc | frozenfractalFeb 23
@SonnyBonds @sinbad @aras @runevision That's the exact point where I'm stuck, too. Let me know when you come up with someth... oh wait 😜
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveFeb 23
@SonnyBonds @aras @runevision I’m fortunate that I’m as old as rocks and my email address domain pre-dates Google; so my gmail address was always hidden behind it 🙂
Show threadAnders StenbergFeb 23
@sinbad @aras @runevision I had hotmail and yahoo and stuff before getting gmail as soon as that was a thing. Don't know why I never thought of the domain thing until recently. :D
Show threadLesley LaiFeb 23
@sinbad Ahh. I may also give it a try. I have an email address currently using Godaddy office365, which I want to migrate away from for a while though I haven't found enough motivation and decide the alternative
Show threadPierre EquoyFeb 22
@aras I switched to Thunderbird from the GMail webmail a while ago for my personal account, and I found it *much* faster in searching emails (because the emails are stored locally). I still use Gmail for work and everything takes 1 second, it's painful.
Show threadnicebyteFeb 22
@aras if you find a reasonable email client, please post an update. there is barely any competent e-mail software left, it's all dead.
the only exception is apple mail (which does no good on on-apple platforms). windows mail used to be decent but ms killed it.
pegasus mail is still amazingly hobbling along but it's very... old, and it shows.
Show threadnicebyteFeb 22
@aras another really bad thing about local email clients is that all of them download your mail and just store them on disk un-encrypted. that's insane, and should NOT be the default for something as sensitive as e-mail. so you have to use something like veracrypt to set up a separate volume where all your mail software and downloaded email lives.
additionally, if you use proton mail, their bridge app ALSO downloads email
Show threadnicebyteFeb 22
@aras so in my case i have thunderbird + proton bridge quarantined off to a veracrypt volume with both of them specially configured to only download and read emails from there. though, at that point, cold-starting the email client is such a hassle i just often end up going to the web version anyways.
Show threadJaycosm🔆Feb 22

@aras Thunderbird is fine. Try Vivaldi also - it has built in email.

In Thunderbird, if you put "recent:" in front of your User Name in the account Server Settings set up for IMAP, it will retrieve the email from Gmail more quickly*...

User Name: recent:[email protected]

...instead of just [email protected]

* I notice I left "recent:" in when I switched over to POP3, and it still works.

Show threadMatthäus "Anteru" ChajdasFeb 22
@aras I use Thunderbird for probably 15 years now and it works well for me. Surprised you're running into issues with that. Maybe the upstream server is slow-ish? With mailbox.org, it seems snappy enough.
Show threadEmil PerssonFeb 23
@anteru @aras Same. Have had no issues really for the past decade at least.
Show threadTobias A. FrankeFeb 22

@aras For me it comes down to versatility: I store all mails since 1994 in one giant Thunderbird profile using maildir and lots of filters that sort mails after archiving.

I have an ancient backup system running rsync, and having loads of tiny files is perfect to sync them across SSH to some backup machine. If the world explodes, I can still use mutt on a console to search my mails.

Show threadGytis RepečkaFeb 22
@aras There is FairEmail on Android 
FairEmail

Open source, privacy friendly email app for Android

Show threadFredrik LudvigsenFeb 23
@aras both proton and fastmail have excellent custom email clients, web and native. But yeah, Thunderbird needs a refresh