Public free (libre) mailbox hosting service for everybody!

[אנטולי קרסנר]

Hi John and all recipients,

I agree offering such a service without charging for it is impossible
without funding. But "free" means "free like in freedom", not "free
beer". The idea is to respect user freedom, and it has nothing to do
with money. I personally will not mind paying for a hosted mailbox.
Maybe now it's difficult because I'm a student and all my money goes to
the university, but in general, people who have full-time jobs can
easily pay just a small amount every month, and it should be enough to
cover the expenses, if enough people use the new server.

But there's a chance we won't need to charge: we can get funding. There
are SO many organizations which help free software projects, and social
initiatives in general. If we get their support and funding, all we need
is people who can work on that server and maintain it technically.

People already do the same for many other services. It's possible with
e-mail too.

As for size limits, attack attempts and anti-spam:

* size limit: It's okay to limit message size because it doesn't limit
user freedom: mail is for text, not for sending movies. There are free
and open source replacements for Dropbox, and large files can be shared
using free (libre) p2p sharing tools, such as bittorent clients. I
actually encourage people not to send large files. Want to share a
mmovie clip? A photo album? Music? No problem, use the best tool for it.
Share large files using Transmission. Upload albums to social networks
or photo-sharing sites. Upload music to a SparkleShare shared folder or
to a audio/video sharing website. All solutions exist. Otherwise, mail
is great for text and documents. And a picture or two are fine too...

* attack attemps: this is a security issue. Be aware that many
"crackers" want to hurt organizations and cause anarchism, but we're not
a software company. Many hackers and crackers are in fact on our side...
and for the others, we'll setup defenses for the servers. I don't know
much about securing a server, but some people here do, so we have the
knowledge.

* spam - I disagree to charge an extra free for spam filtering. Either
the users sets up rules for filtering messages, or the server uses a
mailbox-wide filter for any incoming messages, but there's no extra fee.
The whole service should be available to every user, or not at all. All
extra services, e.g. contact list and calendar, would come together with
the mailbox. No extra fee for any service. If people need to pay for
usage, they get the whole service for the money they pay.

Anatoly Krasner

On ד', 2013-02-27 at 18:23 -0500, John Hudak wrote:
> To answer your question: I don't know of any.
> 
> To offer some observations:
> Assembling 'free software' is only part of the solution.  Acquiring
> servers+associated hw, shelter, and power sources takes CASH.  Keeping
> the service running takes CASH.  There is no 'free' business model.
> 
> I hate the term 'free software'....people invested their time/energy,
> it takes power to run their machines (which is not free), the
> distribution/bugtracking/documentation is not free.  The soft
> drinks/pizza/name your favorite work food is not free.  
> 
> Security and anonymity - how good is it going to be? With the entire
> network being a drawing card for people wanting to steal something,
> how is security and anonymity going to be preserved, for free???
> If people only knew what is being harvested about them from 'free'
> services, there would be a revolt. I even hate using gmail, and use it
> sparingly.
> 
> Free mail server - great idea, Implementing it - priceless!
> 
> -John
> 
> 
> On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 4:11 PM, אנטולי קרסנר <tombackton at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>         Hello e-mail software developers and users!
>         
>         I'd like to ask all of you a question. And of course hear
>         relevant
>         opinion.
>         
>         I've been using free software happily for a few years, and I
>         found
>         free/open source alternatives for many popular proprietary
>         tools such as
>         Facebook, Dropbox, Micro$oft Windows & Office, Youtube, Skype
>         and many
>         many others. Some of the alternatives are probably known to
>         some of you,
>         while others are still unknown to many.
>         
>         But I couldn't find a replacement to mailbox hosting. I'm
>         using a Gmail
>         mailbox and I hate it. So many free and open source mail
>         servers and I
>         still use Gmail, a closed-source service (which also probably
>         tracks all
>         my data, including Google searches I do, and uses it for all
>         kinds of
>         statistics and advertising, but that's another issue). So I
>         asked
>         myself, why is there no mailbox hosting service which respects
>         user
>         freedom?
>         
>         I sent an e-mail to the Free Software Foundation, and got a
>         suggestion
>         to ask all of you: do you know any free (libre) mail server
>         out there?
>         If you do, please inform me, and the whole free software
>         community,
>         developers and users.
>         
>         I couldn't find any. If nobody else finds any either, the plan
>         is to
>         start a new server. There are so many server tools and
>         programs, like
>         the ones you use and develop. It's just like hosting a Git
>         repository or
>         videos of pictures for the masses. We can do it with e-mail
>         too.
>         
>         Q: Why don't I start my own personal server?
>         A: I'm a programmer and I can do it - with some effort, but I
>         can. The
>         problem is not me. The problem is that all the non-programmer
>         and
>         non-technical users can't. And they shouldn't. We tech people
>         can, and
>         should, run such servers for everybody. For all users who want
>         their
>         basic freedoms respected.
>         
>         Another question to tech people: I'm not an expert in e-mail
>         software,
>         so I'm not really sure setting up a server is as easy as all
>         other
>         online services we get, such as Diaspora (facebook
>         replacement),
>         MediaGoblin (Youtube replacement), Gitorious (git repo
>         hosting). Is
>         there a technical issue preventing people from running a mail
>         server, or
>         it's just a matter of having enough money to run it, and the
>         necessary
>         technical skills (which many of you probably have).
>         
>         If it's possible, we'll do it. Also, if users had to pay for
>         such a
>         service, it would be okay. I don't mind paying for my free
>         software
>         stack. I'd actually find it a way to contribute back to the
>         people and
>         projects which deserve it. The point is not money; such a
>         service can
>         get funds. The point if FREEDOM.
>         
>         Waiting for response and opinions from you, my fellow free
>         software
>         community members,
>         Anatoly Krasner
>         Free software enthusiast/activist
>         Israel
>         
>         
>