[Freedombox-discuss] Email on the FreedomBox Discussion
Hi Bjarni,
> > First of all, I would be gratefully if somebody could explain how an
> > smtp+imap email service does not align or promote many of
> the desired
> > attributes of a FBX?
>
> I personally would consider a good e-mail, and especially
> *webmail* experience to be a very valuable addition to the
> FreedomBox. I would like to break my GMail habit, but the
> availability and user interface make that hard. A FreedomBox
> which stored my e-mail, but allowed me webmail access from
> outside when I am on the go would be very awesome.
>
> I spent 6 years writing and running a spam/virus filter
> service for e-mail, and before that I ran an ISP's e-mail
> infrastructure, so I have some insight into how this all fits
> together, although it might be a little dated by now -
> corrections are very welcome.
>
> Here are my takes on what makes SMTP e-mail a hard and/or a
> poor fit for the FreedomBox, in order of severity:
>
> 1. The FreedomBox reference plug will have very limited storage
> space: e-mail accumulates unless you make people download and
> delete from server (which means no webmail).
I have always assumed I would have to plug a USB drive into the FBX for
storage. This is what you have to do for TonidoPlug.
>
> 2. Spam has made it common practice to reject and block
> direct SMTP communication from non-ISP-run servers. Machines
> on home DSL/Cable/... lines will have much difficulty getting
> their mail delivered and will effectively be dependent on ISP
> mail servers for delivery. ISPs also often filter incoming
> SMTP, making people dependent on ISP servers for receiving
> mail as well. Configuring the box to match each ISP's
> settings will rapidly become a messy usability problem.
I have no answer to this question. Why do ISP's block home servers if all
the spam is coming from corporate servers?
>
> 3. People who currently depend on their ISPs for e-mail
> (instead of using a cloud service like GMail) usually
> download their e-mail anyway, so from a privacy/control point
> of view, adding the FreedomBox as an extra hop (note the
> e-mail will still have to go through the ISP servers because
> of 2.) provides little real value unless it does funky things
> like automatic opportunistic GPG encryption/decryption, which
> might be a bad idea anyway for security reasons. So
> attempting to replace ISP services has little real-world
> benefit - but replacing the webmail providers would be a
> massive improvement.
I think the extra hop for encryption is a good thing, especially when my ISP
can eavesdrop on my email. Why is encrypting my email a security risk?
>
> 4. Aside from storage, replacing the webmail providers is
> a UI problem. If our UI is much worse than GMail's, people
> won't want to switch. If we are focusing on what exists
> today, it's entirely possible that there is no existing free
> software that can really do the job. Off the top of my head,
> these are the ones I remember and my opinion on them:
>
> - Squirrelmail - ancient, with an inferior UI
> - RoundCube - looks fancy, not sure how good it really is
> - Zimbra - fancy, modern... bloated. Nowhere near as nice as GMail.
>
> Zimbra might be worth considering for the FreedomBox, as it
> would provide e-mail and calendaring and such, and it's being
> actively improved. Maybe someday it will get close to
> matching GMail's usability. :-)
Now I understand the constant reference to UI :0 Personally, I chose privacy
before "Gmail Man" UI and I guess that's why I use my ISPs server and their
Squirrelmail webmail server. Still, I see FBX is selling privacy about UI.
>
> Storage and overall horsepower of the plug server remain an issue.
An email server would kill a plug too. Sigh :(
Thanks for your response. It has been so insightful.
-- fiftyfour
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