There's something off putting in Proton, since its inception. Nothing too horrible, but little decisions like this one that don't message its marketing storytelling. Personally, I don't recommend...
There's something off putting in Proton, since its inception. Nothing too horrible, but little decisions like this one that don't message its marketing storytelling.
Personally, I don't recommend them anymore to people asking me for Big Tech alternatives…
The problem is that they're the closest solution I've found to a full non-Google stack. And with their gmail connector, all my old stuff still on gmail gets forwarded and I can still send using...
The problem is that they're the closest solution I've found to a full non-Google stack. And with their gmail connector, all my old stuff still on gmail gets forwarded and I can still send using the mail app itself. Have yet to hear about any other provider going to that length.
They made PGP easy. PGP has never been easy.
Drive gives me the photo backups I need. It works well with rclone.
Having Sheets solves 90% of my Google Docs needs.
Password manager + alias generation in one go.
The VPN works reliably, including exposing a connectable TCP/UDP port for being connectable with a torrent client.
It's mildly problematic in that sense. Because now I essentially require my next provider(s) to essentially do that as well.
If someone has a better pairing than Kagi+Proton, I'm all ears.
I sort of see searching for a 'full stack' as itself the problem. Said differently, the issue with putting all your eggs in one basket doesn't have much to do with which basket you choose. That's...
I sort of see searching for a 'full stack' as itself the problem. Said differently, the issue with putting all your eggs in one basket doesn't have much to do with which basket you choose. That's not to say you're in the wrong for wanting to, since it is legitimately so much more convenient to have all those functions in one place. I personally chose to live with the minor inconveniences caused by separation, and ended up with this setup:
Mail: Posteo (Inconvenience: horrible web interface. I just use Thunderbird though, so doesn't matter much.)
Office: LibreOffice (Inconvenience: janky, ugly. Technically works fine though, and it's always gradually improving.)
Storage: I just use rsync with a USB drive to manually backup my files every few weeks. (Inconvenience: obvious. Fits my needs well enough though.)
Password manager: KeePassXC (Inconvenience: not integrated with my browser. Maybe I could set that up if I tried? Though I've never felt the need to.)
I generally concur that putting all your eggs in one basket is very bad. However, when pitching moving off one of the big-bads to normal people (and I include Apple on this), you very much need a...
I generally concur that putting all your eggs in one basket is very bad. However, when pitching moving off one of the big-bads to normal people (and I include Apple on this), you very much need a one-stop shop that will ease the transition as much as possible while providing a killer feature to justify the inconvenience. Or they have 0 motivation to switch unless they have a personal vendetta.
I've heard of it but haven't looked into it much. I remember they were doing some questionable stuff around FOSS policies, and were supposedly managed by a shady Russian company, but FWIW this is...
I've heard of it but haven't looked into it much. I remember they were doing some questionable stuff around FOSS policies, and were supposedly managed by a shady Russian company, but FWIW this is just me unquestioningly repeating headlines I've seen in passing; I have no idea how much merit that info actually has. Is it worth giving it a closer look?
Personally that is why I didn't try to find a single solution filling in the entire stack. I strongly feel that this is part the web is the state it is in, because people get locked into single...
The problem is that they're the closest solution I've found to a full non-Google stack.
Personally that is why I didn't try to find a single solution filling in the entire stack. I strongly feel that this is part the web is the state it is in, because people get locked into single vendors housing their entire digital online presence. I house my mail in one place, documents elsewhere, etc. Sure, it isn't as neatly and tightly integrated as housing it all in one thing but it is more than workable.
Having said that, my mail hosting provider mailbox.org does offer a lot that google also offers through ox.
Can you not just do this with IMAP? I've had this functionality with fastmail for 10 years.
And with their gmail connector, all my old stuff still on gmail gets forwarded and I can still send using the mail app itself. Have yet to hear about any other provider going to that length.
Can you not just do this with IMAP? I've had this functionality with fastmail for 10 years.
I've moved to Fastmail and been extremely happy with it so far. It doesn't quite tick all the same privacy boxes with being an Australian company, but their messaging is good at this stage. I grew...
I've moved to Fastmail and been extremely happy with it so far. It doesn't quite tick all the same privacy boxes with being an Australian company, but their messaging is good at this stage. I grew more and more annoyed with Proton's laser focus on business customers and AI products, especially since I never saw a single product improvement I actually thought about using. Fastmail seems a lot more interested in me as a personal-use customer.
I've found the web interface and Android app to be leagues better than Proton's, and their offering for catch-all domains and aliases is far more generous. I'm making a ton of use of labels instead of folders, with some basic use of filter rules and finally used the opportunity to work on something like inbox zero (which is unrelated to the product, but I'm happy with it!) I've also got the Duo plan with my partner, and shared folders have been quite easy to use.
I can't speak for any VPN offerings as I use a personal one instead.
Another vote for Fastmail! I’ve been using it for years, and recently got my wife onto it as well, and we’ve been making extensive use of the unlimited aliases.
Another vote for Fastmail! I’ve been using it for years, and recently got my wife onto it as well, and we’ve been making extensive use of the unlimited aliases.
Another +1 for Fastmail. I am usually pretty hesitant to paying for more than a month of a service until I feel pretty confident that I won’t regret it. There are a few steady services that I...
Another +1 for Fastmail. I am usually pretty hesitant to paying for more than a month of a service until I feel pretty confident that I won’t regret it. There are a few steady services that I happily pay for the yearly version. For Fastmail, I have slowly increased that to paying for three years at once. Fantastic service. And, when I was shopping around, it was one of the few email services that didn’t charge extra for all the random domains I end up buying.
All of the 3rd party auditors come back saying things like “Oh my god I’ve never seen anything this legit before - they really don’t know anything about their customers.” Your user authentication...
All of the 3rd party auditors come back saying things like “Oh my god I’ve never seen anything this legit before - they really don’t know anything about their customers.” Your user authentication is just a long random number. You can mail them cash and an account number and they’ll credit your account.
If you just want to do mail and not really use all the end to end encryption bibs and bobs (for which you could also use pgp) there are plenty of alternatives. Personally I am using mailbox.org...
If you just want to do mail and not really use all the end to end encryption bibs and bobs (for which you could also use pgp) there are plenty of alternatives. Personally I am using mailbox.org which is Germany based, privacy friendly overall and has been around for a while.
But there are others as well. As tea pointed out, if you have your own domain switching is also relatively easy.
Email: I second the Fastmail recommendation. Coming from Gmail's bloated Web interface, Fastmail is a breath of fresh air. It looks and performs like "Web 1.0+", but it has every feature I could...
Email: I second the Fastmail recommendation. Coming from Gmail's bloated Web interface, Fastmail is a breath of fresh air. It looks and performs like "Web 1.0+", but it has every feature I could want from an email interface.
I generally agree, but I feel 90% of the ill-will toward proton (prior to this little stunt) is due to the whole "applauding Trump nominee" and courting the paranoid crowd. I personally think both...
I generally agree, but I feel 90% of the ill-will toward proton (prior to this little stunt) is due to the whole "applauding Trump nominee" and courting the paranoid crowd.
I personally think both issues are somewhat overblown, especially relative to the competition.
I'm not god damn surprised, pardon my Swiss German. It's always weirded me out how they are so high and mighty about security, but didn't even offer good clients back when I was with them (which...
I'm not god damn surprised, pardon my Swiss German. It's always weirded me out how they are so high and mighty about security, but didn't even offer good clients back when I was with them (which was... I dunno, 2018-2020 or so). They always seemed very preoccupied with the appearance of competence and played very much to the enterprise crowd. A new and flashy Exchange, really. I get that SMTP/IMAP aren't secure per se, but simply... not offering a way to connect another client is also the opposite of user friendly. (Yes, I know about Proton bridge, which didn't work for me at all when it came out).
That and, at the time, they didn't at all seem interested in meaningfully contributing to open source or even listening to the community of high-power security nerds that naturally clustered around them. I'm not saying they're incompetent, they've not had a data breach yet, so clearly, they're doing something right, but with this whole recent pivot to being a Google alternative (Proton Drive, Proton VPN, Proton Documents or whatever) I have a feeling they're not exactly interested in catering to the turbo nerds that made them big to begin with.
I mean, the over/under on getting businesses to lock in perpetual contracts is a lot better than a collection of random internet weirdos. A few big corporate whales can subsidize an awful lot of...
I mean, the over/under on getting businesses to lock in perpetual contracts is a lot better than a collection of random internet weirdos. A few big corporate whales can subsidize an awful lot of randos.
I'd personally be thrilled for my doctor to migrate off Gmail. In some ways it well could be more important to get small/medium corps off Microsoft/Google than it is the randoms.
There's something off putting in Proton, since its inception. Nothing too horrible, but little decisions like this one that don't message its marketing storytelling.
Personally, I don't recommend them anymore to people asking me for Big Tech alternatives…
The problem is that they're the closest solution I've found to a full non-Google stack. And with their gmail connector, all my old stuff still on gmail gets forwarded and I can still send using the mail app itself. Have yet to hear about any other provider going to that length.
They made PGP easy. PGP has never been easy.
Drive gives me the photo backups I need. It works well with rclone.
Having Sheets solves 90% of my Google Docs needs.
Password manager + alias generation in one go.
The VPN works reliably, including exposing a connectable TCP/UDP port for being connectable with a torrent client.
It's mildly problematic in that sense. Because now I essentially require my next provider(s) to essentially do that as well.
If someone has a better pairing than Kagi+Proton, I'm all ears.
I sort of see searching for a 'full stack' as itself the problem. Said differently, the issue with putting all your eggs in one basket doesn't have much to do with which basket you choose. That's not to say you're in the wrong for wanting to, since it is legitimately so much more convenient to have all those functions in one place. I personally chose to live with the minor inconveniences caused by separation, and ended up with this setup:
I generally concur that putting all your eggs in one basket is very bad. However, when pitching moving off one of the big-bads to normal people (and I include Apple on this), you very much need a one-stop shop that will ease the transition as much as possible while providing a killer feature to justify the inconvenience. Or they have 0 motivation to switch unless they have a personal vendetta.
Have you tried OnlyOffice in place of Libre?
I've heard of it but haven't looked into it much. I remember they were doing some questionable stuff around FOSS policies, and were supposedly managed by a shady Russian company, but FWIW this is just me unquestioningly repeating headlines I've seen in passing; I have no idea how much merit that info actually has. Is it worth giving it a closer look?
The UI is pretty decent. Also, the size isn’t large (smaller than a single Microsoft office app), but contains all 3 - docs, sheets, ppt.
KPXC has a decent browser integration plugin, I would recommend setting it up.
Personally that is why I didn't try to find a single solution filling in the entire stack. I strongly feel that this is part the web is the state it is in, because people get locked into single vendors housing their entire digital online presence. I house my mail in one place, documents elsewhere, etc. Sure, it isn't as neatly and tightly integrated as housing it all in one thing but it is more than workable.
Having said that, my mail hosting provider mailbox.org does offer a lot that google also offers through ox.
Can you not just do this with IMAP? I've had this functionality with fastmail for 10 years.
God, I don't want to change all my shit again...
What are some good alternatives to proton mail and VPN?
I've moved to Fastmail and been extremely happy with it so far. It doesn't quite tick all the same privacy boxes with being an Australian company, but their messaging is good at this stage. I grew more and more annoyed with Proton's laser focus on business customers and AI products, especially since I never saw a single product improvement I actually thought about using. Fastmail seems a lot more interested in me as a personal-use customer.
I've found the web interface and Android app to be leagues better than Proton's, and their offering for catch-all domains and aliases is far more generous. I'm making a ton of use of labels instead of folders, with some basic use of filter rules and finally used the opportunity to work on something like inbox zero (which is unrelated to the product, but I'm happy with it!) I've also got the Duo plan with my partner, and shared folders have been quite easy to use.
I can't speak for any VPN offerings as I use a personal one instead.
Another vote for Fastmail! I’ve been using it for years, and recently got my wife onto it as well, and we’ve been making extensive use of the unlimited aliases.
Another +1 for Fastmail. I am usually pretty hesitant to paying for more than a month of a service until I feel pretty confident that I won’t regret it. There are a few steady services that I happily pay for the yearly version. For Fastmail, I have slowly increased that to paying for three years at once. Fantastic service. And, when I was shopping around, it was one of the few email services that didn’t charge extra for all the random domains I end up buying.
Always make sure you have your own domain name so switching providers is easy. And Mullvad is the only option I recommend for VPNs.
Why's that, out of interest? I use another company out of Scandanavia but I appreciate your views on tech, Captain Picard
All of the 3rd party auditors come back saying things like “Oh my god I’ve never seen anything this legit before - they really don’t know anything about their customers.” Your user authentication is just a long random number. You can mail them cash and an account number and they’ll credit your account.
If you just want to do mail and not really use all the end to end encryption bibs and bobs (for which you could also use pgp) there are plenty of alternatives. Personally I am using mailbox.org which is Germany based, privacy friendly overall and has been around for a while.
But there are others as well. As tea pointed out, if you have your own domain switching is also relatively easy.
Some folk dislike mullvad because of right-wing politics in Sweden of the CEO, details are web search away. They are my current provider.
So basically the same problem as Proton, if not moreso?
Arguably much worse given that Berntsson (Mullvad co-founder) was responsible for 72% of the far right Swedish party (Örebropartiet)'s funding.
I haven't seen enough evidence so say that Proton is right-wing. The founder is more left-wing than social media portrays.
I generally agree, but I feel 90% of the ill-will toward proton (prior to this little stunt) is due to the whole "applauding Trump nominee" and courting the paranoid crowd.
I personally think both issues are somewhat overblown, especially relative to the competition.
I'm not god damn surprised, pardon my Swiss German. It's always weirded me out how they are so high and mighty about security, but didn't even offer good clients back when I was with them (which was... I dunno, 2018-2020 or so). They always seemed very preoccupied with the appearance of competence and played very much to the enterprise crowd. A new and flashy Exchange, really. I get that SMTP/IMAP aren't secure per se, but simply... not offering a way to connect another client is also the opposite of user friendly. (Yes, I know about Proton bridge, which didn't work for me at all when it came out).
That and, at the time, they didn't at all seem interested in meaningfully contributing to open source or even listening to the community of high-power security nerds that naturally clustered around them. I'm not saying they're incompetent, they've not had a data breach yet, so clearly, they're doing something right, but with this whole recent pivot to being a Google alternative (Proton Drive, Proton VPN, Proton Documents or whatever) I have a feeling they're not exactly interested in catering to the turbo nerds that made them big to begin with.
I mean, the over/under on getting businesses to lock in perpetual contracts is a lot better than a collection of random internet weirdos. A few big corporate whales can subsidize an awful lot of randos.
I'd personally be thrilled for my doctor to migrate off Gmail. In some ways it well could be more important to get small/medium corps off Microsoft/Google than it is the randoms.
Nobody knows what these interviews actually are.