Gmail Alternatives?
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Ta again Ayespy. I've asked this elsewhere but didn't see a reply, so i'll repeat it here. Did M1/M2 have any PIM-elements aside from email [eg, Calendar, Tasks, Notes…]? Irrespective, any vibes yet on on whether M3 would ditto ditto?
Having gone to really substantial effort, over a period of several months this year, to research acceptable Linux replacements for my old Win7/10 Outlook 2010 [in which btw i was a [i]very intensive extensive user of ALL its PIM modules], then successfully migrating to FossaMail+Lightning in my Linux Mint OS [but only for its email & calendar modules; i selected separate GNU s/w for my other Linux PIM modules], & having then tricked-up FM+L with a large array of really great add-ons to extend functionality & return a lot of my old Outlook 2010 look & feel, M3 would need to be VERY IMPRESSIVE for me to have incentive to migrate further.
I suppose i'll only really know these answers once i can touch & taste live M3, but thought i'd ask herein anyway given there's lots of people here who seem to know lots more about M1/2/3 than i do [ie, > 0].
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My on-SSD OS = Linux Mint x64 17.3 KDE 4.14.2.All it had was mail, RSS and ultimately torrent. (plus of course contacts, which could only be synced with GMail thru a special free-standing program) There was no calendar. I am pulling for a calendar for M3/Vivaldi.
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IMAP and POP3 have nothing to do with what you are doing on the web. They only relate to the ways in which email clients (which you are not using) are able to fetch email. Turning them on at the GMail page just means a local email client you are using on your machine at home, has the CHOICE to fetch email one way or the other. While using the web portal, you are not using POP3 or IMAP. You are not using a mail client. You are using a web interface. the GMail servers, in googleville, are probably receiving emails using http, and sending them using SMTP.
I wish I could diagram the difference between web mail and mail clients for you. You seem to be making incorrect assumptions regarding the nature of these beasts and how they a) are totally different beasts and b) talk to each other.
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I started using Mailbird recently as a client, with my Gmail account, and I'm actually loving it so far! Gmail is not useful in it's layout, so while I'm still dealing with the privacy crap from Google(ProtonMail can't use 3rd party email clients . . .
) At least I get the usability for a good 2-row layout, lots of features, formatting, and an attractive looking mail client(Hope M3 is also good looking!). So, we'll see once M3 comes out if I'll use it, if it has formatting, and once ProtonMail can AT LEAST be 3rd party friendly, then I'd look into those things. But for now, Mailbird is actually really great and useful! I don't know how ''private" it is though, but at least it's better than Gmail webmail. -
Mailbird … Windows ... :S
Yes, Mailbird is only for Windows . . . for now. One of the original reasons why they made it was because there was a very useful and user-friendly email client on Mac called Sparrow, and there was no Sparrow equivalent on Windows, so they made one, and with their own features, UI, and everything. It's actually very useful, almost power-user like. It's not any more private than using Gmail webmail, as my Gmail emails will still go through Google's servers, but at least my usefulness in email craving is somewhat satisfied with this. Gmail webmail sucks because I can't get that 2-row vertical layout that is just so useful for navigation. It's really dumb.
Anyway, Mailbird weren't expecting Sparrow to shut down, so they're now saying they will eventually come out with versions on mobile, Mac and Linux: https://www.getmailbird.com/why-is-mailbird-windows-only/
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"Yes, Mailbird is only for Windows "
Yeah, i know that, hence my post was a statement not question, & the crinkly face was supposed to denote my dismay [but i'm not very good with emoticons so i'm not surprised i didn't get my point across that way]. Many thanks for the link, that was interesting to read, but looking at the dates i can see that progress is s l o w & so i won't expect this client to come to Linux anytime soon. So, tis still FossaMail+Lightning with my 16 Add-Ons, for me for the foreseeable future.
I don't expect it to come to Mac and Linux that soon either, until they've gotten enough support on Windows and enough people really want it on Mac and Linux, which I can understand. I don't know what mail clients are on Linux, but they must have some decent enough ones for now. So I can understand them wanting to focus on Windows for now, and maybe Mac and Linux later. By then, I'm sure M3 will come out and I'm hoping to god that ProtonMail comes out with some important features that I absolutely need if I want to switch.
If ProtonMail at least had IMAP support, at least until they figure out their end-to-end encryption deal with IMAP, then I can use ProtonMail on any client I needed, which would be a great solution. Mailbird is great in usability, at least until I see how M3 will be. I wish Mailbird could have probably been on Mac and Linux too. You might have liked it, as long as you can use a provider that's private.
What I hate in today's software/hardware world is just the amount of fragmentation there is going on, and the lack of seamlessness between software, platforms and hardware. Before Vivaldi, all browsers on desktop were not a good solution at all. Vivaldi is here, which is great, but there's no mobile version yet, and dealing with my mobile browsers sometimes is a pain because of it. I don't love Google's software solutions, yet I can't find great alternatives to everything. DDG is a great alternative to Google search, and ProtonMail would have been a great alternative to Gmail, if it at least had IMAP support for 3rd party clients that I could have some sort of workaround, or if ProtonMail's webmail was feature-rich enough that I could fully replace Gmail. I don't know of any Google Drive alternatives yet, though I haven't been looking hard.
I can't wait until the future, when I can have seamless software cross-platform that would work, and be very useful. Software these days feels less useful than before, even if it is prettier(which is good). I remember Android pre-Material Design, and I remember it having more options, and at least being somewhat more useful and customizable than it is today.
There needs to be some sort of solution. You can make software that is good looking and neat and uncluttered, while making it feature-rich and useful with a user-friendly layout and control, and in where it matters, making it private/secure. That's totally possible, from what I've seen in Vivaldi/Opera. Apple's not great, but they're better looking than Windows, and their 1st party apps are just more useful than Windows, while Google is trying to dumb everything down as much as possible. There must be some sort of solution that can tie all this together, while making it seamless, communicable, and useful.
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Take a look at 'Fastmail.com'
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So far, it's looking like the closest viable alternative to Gmail for me is going to be Protonmail in the future. After watching it for a while, it's becoming the biggest privacy-minded email provider. Thanks Steffie for showing it to me. The only thing stopping me from porting over is the lack of formatting, but once that's solved, or at least they have IMAP so I can work around the lack of formatting and possibly other limitations, I can start using Protonmail full-time. I know it's a for real email client, and I'm loving everything about it so far, except for it's limited functionality at the moment. But once it's ready for me, I'll definitely switch over for sure.
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Ppafflick moved this topic from Software on
