I Used Proton Mail for 6 Months - Is it Good?

[@TheLinuxCast]

Want to try Proton Mail? Use my referral link: pr.tn/ref/F4PKCVB43XP0

[@everett7903]

You also get VPN when you sign up for email. I never thought I'd pay for email, but I've been pretty happy and the aliases are great as you pointed out.

[@ChadsHobies]

I use the proton app on my Samsung s20 note. There is no delay for me. There is no loading. I use proton to protect my healthcare information, official stuff like taxes, state stuff, loan payments, sensitive stuff from work and many other things that I would loose my mind if an advertisement army running riot in my inbox. I don't pay all that much, and I have donated some back when proton started.

[@topherfungus8424]

Hey Matt, I hope you're voice comes back after a little rest. I also took a look Proton mail about 2 years ago for similar reasons and I really liked it, but I got a little bit distracted and sort of forgot about it. I now intend to take another look as soon as I get around to it and am currently re-using a very old Yahoo email account that still works really well for me, and it may be worth a look from you. Anyways, thanks for the content and take care of yourself.

[@DarthDweeb]

If google mail was encrypted, they wouldn't be able to train AI on your email correspondence. I use proton, I'm happy.

[@BDnevernind]

It's not for AI (that would be dumb), it's for ads. It's been that way since they founded Gmail like 20 years ago. They've never hidden it.

[@Sora-el-manco]

@@BDnevernind it's not for ads; they just want to know you so they can customize your experience to make it better :) /s

[@DarthDweeb]

@@Sora-el-manco lol. So true.

[@marbens]

@@Sora-el-manco That's actually technically true. Customizing ads is customizing your experience.

[@92redferrari]

Thanks for very good assessment of pros and cons of proton. I have seriously thought about it instead of Gmail. Just out of laziness haven't moved yet. Cheers 😊

[@Brutar1]

Bridge is working in the way, that run IMAP server on your local machine where it downloads and sync all mails. So communication between bridge and Proton is encrypted, but on your localmachine is encrypted only communication between bridge and client using self signed SSL Certificates. Also Proton Bridge is protected by random password when setup connection to him. It is nice service that is working well on Linux (fedora, and ubuntu that I tested) Only thing that cant work is calendar. But now they have electron based app for email and calendar that you can download.

[@jan_raynor_sereda]

I personally use the Proton Suite ... and yes I emphasize suite because I use not only a Mail but also their Password manager, Their cloud storage and occasionally their VPN that you'll get in their standard Subscription and as someone who transferred from Outlook ... I miss some features of the Outlook Mail client on both my phone and PC like for example more frequent Synch cycle where with outlook it at least felt to me that I didn't have to refresh the app/site at all where over here when I expect an email I have to refresh it manually if I don't want to wait for standard refresh window ... but that is like the biggest gripe I have with that, rest is pretty much just "getting used to" pains like for example the Mail "Composer" or how is it called the window to write an email to me feels better in Outlook than here where in Outlook it opens pretty much a new text block above the latest message where as here it opens "Gmail-like" window where you type your reply ... you know the little things

[@eherrmann01]

I've been using Ptotonmail in Thunderbird through Bridge for a couple of years with no problems. I found bridge pretty easy to get running, and they have very good documentation on how to set it up.

[@TheLinuxCast]

All my knowledge of Bridge comes from rumors and from other people. I didn't find the need not to use the Web client.

[@donpeer4477]

The fix for insecure email services is to write you message in a text file, encrypt or compress w/ password, and attach that file to the email you're sending, then send them the password for decryption using another communication media (phone/text/etc). But, NOT via email...

[@richirich1757]

About encryption I think proton has the case in mind that gov cannot access your complete mailbox. In worst case it can only read the content from other people which will be pretty incomplete

[@BDnevernind]

I cant believe anyone doesnt know thst Gmail's business model depends on reading your email do they can target you with ads. That was an explicit founding functionality. They are never going to encrypt.

[@weholmes5315]

Just signed up for Tuta mail and set up my own domain and email aliases. I’m quite satisfied! 😊

[@BaronBSOfficial]

Just one obs about email clients, to get the same exp I installed proton mail as a chrome app.

[@c0wg0d]

Proton's contact management is a dumpster fire. It's in a tiny sidebar that you don't even know exists if you have the right sidebar collapsed. It's clunky and difficult to use. It needs to be a full screen interface or a different app interface entirely. You can't even sync contacts to your Android phone (not sure about iPhone), which is a ridiculous thing to say in 2024 (almost 2025).

[@TheLinuxCast]

@@c0wg0d the web ui isn’t great for that true. But contacts synced fine on iOS.

[@henokhsatrio8804]

Their customer support is great!

[@BodomsScythe]

You answered your own question about Gmail being encrypted. Google is listening to everything we say, and they love doing that. Furthermore, as you said, they have a massive user base. Probably the biggest email provider in the world, so why would they feel the need to advertise their service with encryption? They are already on top.

[@sproid]

It's also not true that "you're not supposed to click links on emails at all". Most emails from Stores, services, surveys, policies, ToS, Unsubscribe, etc have/are links. Most if not all emails from medical services have the 'click the link' to take you to the actual message. I believe I've also seen it for legal offices, and other businesses.

[@slothinessless]

I'm using one of the proton suites and successfully ditched google 2 years ago. My Android experience is ok wrt mail and drive. The calendar is quite bad, i must admit, and the VPN is great. Meh on the linux side. Both TB mail and kmail work ok with bridge, and on your computer it's plain IMAP wherw you can keep folder content offline if you want to. but you have to be willing to accept slowness. Calendar has too many problems that way to be of any use. Drive - no app yet. Been using rclone to automount as a network folder. It's terribly slow and it's a known issue for a long time. I don't mind it normally. If I need to upload fast I open Drive via the browser. Please note that as with gmail, extended attributes is not supported and other metadata might not be saved, too. It's quite a problem for me as a heavy user of tags and comments on files, which is why I don't rely on it as backup.

[@bosmanka]

Fastmail has far more to offer for people who want to have control.

[@jon4589]

If you don't remember what you are paying for email...maybe you could, oh, I don't know...look up the receipt in the email?

[@TheLinuxCast]

I did. Did you not see the correction?

[@jon4589]

@@TheLinuxCast You are correct. I will go to the box and feel shame.

[@conatusprinciple4115]

Proton’s email is good, but the Linux-support is subpar to non-existent when it comes to the other Proton products

[@that_leaflet]

Yeah. The desktop mail and passwords apps are unusable for me because they constantly sign me out. So I'm stuck using the browser extension for the password which I don't like since browsers are the most vulnerable software on any computer.

[@jmacdono]

Have you tried it recently? In Fedora, although it is in beta, the RPM package from their site works flawlessly for me. I have been using it daily in Fedora 41 for over a month, and it doesn't log me out anymore.

[@centy64]

On android there is a tiny loading time where it shows the logo but my emails are immediately there. This isn't consistent though I've noticed a few times especially if I got new emails that it can be slower at loading but other than that I've had no issues with the app. The web version on the other hand is much slower even logging in takes an age sometimes and it doesn't seem to matter which browser I'm using.

[@SchlumplesSchlumolomus-u9u]

Same experience, been that way for years too

[@Tragicomedy2137]

I remember when you skeeted on Mastodon that you started using it. Damn it's already been half a year?

[@TheLinuxCast]

It has been quite a while. I think it was August.

[@sproid]

Google has the option for encrypted Mail when you have a Business account. All secure (encrypted) emails you want to send to non-Gmail also send a link to the actual message on gmail servers. Same as Protonmail, MS Outlook, etc.

[@riezzo1350]

Been thinkin about proton mail

[@xanderxk]

i think proton is the best email and cloud drive

[@noginnogg4596]

I have been using Thunderbird for many years on various distos. Is ther anything seriously bad in Thunderbird?

[@SchlumplesSchlumolomus-u9u]

No but why? Like I genuinely don't see a reason for it to exist or be used.

[@ashishpatel350]

yup its good email.

[@OrbitalRescueSage]

No, the correct way to frame this: Protonmail, their vpn, and storage are for the few people that aren’t okay with being the product sold to advertisers. And most people are like my dad, where they go, ‘i has nothing to hide’ and roll over and submit to their technocrat overlords.

[@SchlumplesSchlumolomus-u9u]

Lmao this community is so stupid and embarrassing. I read shit like this and wish I didn't like Linux. (Kidding of course, but also like what the fuck is up with you people)

[@liamsoape2233]

Been using Posteo, 12 euro a year, little conversion fee since I'm American but I couldn't care less. I like that I can use it on Thunderbird without paying for an entire suite that I'm not gonna use.

[@DragoonScull]

Posteo doesn't support catch-all for your own domains, though, which was a dealbreaker for me. Mailbox org does, but recently hiked the price if you need this (in addition to the entire suite) - there is a mail lite offering though for 1€ as well.

[@CyborgZeta]

Posteo is excellent.

[@nex7053]

why google is not encrypting your data you are asking.. oh boy.. do you really want to go to this rabbit hole ? your emails have to be unencrypted so Google can tokenize them and use them for advertising. If data would be encrypted they would shut down biggest pool of advert data. This is actualy whole point of having service like proton - on your side everything is encrypted and happy.

[@VideoEnjoyer-m3z]

1. There is a native Linux client in both an RPM and DEB bundle. It is NOT the bridge. 2. The mobile app on Android doesn't have the load lag problem you describe. 3. Email encryption is a fetish, not a real requirement. If the state wants to find you, they will.

[@Tired_Night_Owl_in_the_Woods]

We want encryption not to hide from the government we want it to hide from marketing agents and hungry personal info brokers, from ai trainig datasets, social profiling etc. İ do not want google to know what İ have ordered and when the parcel came and to what postal office...

[@SchlumplesSchlumolomus-u9u]

2. Yes it does.

[@VideoEnjoyer-m3z]

@@SchlumplesSchlumolomus-u9u No it doesn't

[@SchlumplesSchlumolomus-u9u]

Linux weirdos heh. I went down that road for years. Proton is and was decent. Worked well enough. Came back to Google recently because I realized how incredibly silly I was being. Frankly Google doesn't bother me very much at all, their free product is obliterates proton and the AI is awesome, sorry but I have no clue why people in this community seem to be against it almost unanimously. But proton is decent and has uh, SLIGHTLY improved over the last 3 or 4 years. I do still use it for some stuff. But overall I don't like it better than Gmail or even half as much, and theeeeen the rest of it is just funnily behind.

[@SchlumplesSchlumolomus-u9u]

Agreed like heck though that google should encrypt their emails. And don't get me wrong. I prefer the small guy so to sleam and dislike the sheer size and power of Google. I do legit enjoy and support Google's software and hardware though. Pixel phones are amazing. Proton though will always be used for my most sensitive logins etc, that I can say.

[@SchlumplesSchlumolomus-u9u]

Proton drive sucks btw, the email and ?maybe? VPN are the only decent parts of it

[@nullcorebyte]

Shiller shilling

[@paulkennedy4305]

Good Content. Thank you. I Just found you, Subscribed. Question -- Can Proton Mail Alias e-mail addresses be set up on my I Cloud Mac Mail -- with Proton Alias messages forwarded to that Alias e-mail on my Mac -or- is Only my Proton's "primary e-mal address" only able to be set up on my Mac with Proton Alias sent to the Primary Proton e-mail address on my Mac? Thank you. Paul

[@TheLinuxCast]

@@paulkennedy4305 not sure about the Mac thing but probably. I don't have a Mac so can't test.