Yeah, but like what’s the alternative? Run your own email server at your house? I don’t have the time or the motivation to provide even close to the uptime or the security I’d want in an email...
Yeah, but like what’s the alternative? Run your own email server at your house?
I don’t have the time or the motivation to provide even close to the uptime or the security I’d want in an email service if I were to self host. Is it possible, sure, but the world involved is too much for me, and I’ve been in IT for a long time. It’s certainly too much for people who don’t have any background in it.
If we are just talking about email, there are products like Helm that claim to be turnkey self-hosting solutions for regular people. I haven’t used this so I can’t vouch for it, but the idea is...
If we are just talking about email, there are products like Helm that claim to be turnkey self-hosting solutions for regular people. I haven’t used this so I can’t vouch for it, but the idea is compelling.
You got me curious. There were multiple broken links on Helm's site; I checked and they apparently shut down in December, 2022. It's sad, but the model still required giving a lot of trust, not...
You got me curious. There were multiple broken links on Helm's site; I checked and they apparently shut down in December, 2022. It's sad, but the model still required giving a lot of trust, not least in the long-term viability of the product.
I'd be delighted to run my own home server again if I just had a trusted service to manage the mail deliverability piece.
Oh wow, I remember hearing some Helm ads on podcasts years ago, didn't realize they are defunct now. I imagine there are other offerings on the market but haven't looked into it. Email is the one...
Oh wow, I remember hearing some Helm ads on podcasts years ago, didn't realize they are defunct now. I imagine there are other offerings on the market but haven't looked into it. Email is the one thing I wouldn't trust myself to self-host, it's... fraught. I dabbled in it years ago to much regret. Ended up using Zoho Mail's free plan. It's still in the cloud but I prefer them having my data over Google at least.
Mail services are the easy part - I self-hosted Roundcube years ago. But it's gotten impossible to secure a dedicated IP from home broadband providers, business costs aren't supportable for a...
Mail services are the easy part - I self-hosted Roundcube years ago. But it's gotten impossible to secure a dedicated IP from home broadband providers, business costs aren't supportable for a hobby project, and it's an effort to establish an IP/domain reputation in order to prove that your mail isn't spam. Molly White discussed the process in her post about migrating from Substack to Ghost + Mailgun, and it's a massive headache with costs I can't justify.
I absolutely wouldn't trust AWS or Azure for hosting a personal mail server. The costs of a bandwidth or storage surge from a misconfiguration or DDoS (and the costs of protecting against that) can run out of control faster than I'd care to manage. It can be done, but I wouldn't enjoy it and I'd still be dependent on one of the Bigs.
I watched an old episode of the Simpsons recently and was reminded that people used to mock Bill Gates frequently for his companies business practices. Does anyone else remember that little...
I watched an old episode of the Simpsons recently and was reminded that people used to mock Bill Gates frequently for his companies business practices. Does anyone else remember that little freeware pie Bill Gates game? MS hasn't changed if anything their awfulness became more efficient.
Yeah, but like what’s the alternative? Run your own email server at your house?
I don’t have the time or the motivation to provide even close to the uptime or the security I’d want in an email service if I were to self host. Is it possible, sure, but the world involved is too much for me, and I’ve been in IT for a long time. It’s certainly too much for people who don’t have any background in it.
If we are just talking about email, there are products like Helm that claim to be turnkey self-hosting solutions for regular people. I haven’t used this so I can’t vouch for it, but the idea is compelling.
You got me curious. There were multiple broken links on Helm's site; I checked and they apparently shut down in December, 2022. It's sad, but the model still required giving a lot of trust, not least in the long-term viability of the product.
I'd be delighted to run my own home server again if I just had a trusted service to manage the mail deliverability piece.
Oh wow, I remember hearing some Helm ads on podcasts years ago, didn't realize they are defunct now. I imagine there are other offerings on the market but haven't looked into it. Email is the one thing I wouldn't trust myself to self-host, it's... fraught. I dabbled in it years ago to much regret. Ended up using Zoho Mail's free plan. It's still in the cloud but I prefer them having my data over Google at least.
Mail services are the easy part - I self-hosted Roundcube years ago. But it's gotten impossible to secure a dedicated IP from home broadband providers, business costs aren't supportable for a hobby project, and it's an effort to establish an IP/domain reputation in order to prove that your mail isn't spam. Molly White discussed the process in her post about migrating from Substack to Ghost + Mailgun, and it's a massive headache with costs I can't justify.
I absolutely wouldn't trust AWS or Azure for hosting a personal mail server. The costs of a bandwidth or storage surge from a misconfiguration or DDoS (and the costs of protecting against that) can run out of control faster than I'd care to manage. It can be done, but I wouldn't enjoy it and I'd still be dependent on one of the Bigs.
I watched an old episode of the Simpsons recently and was reminded that people used to mock Bill Gates frequently for his companies business practices. Does anyone else remember that little freeware pie Bill Gates game? MS hasn't changed if anything their awfulness became more efficient.
Buy him out boys!