10.27.22

^{Gemini version available ♊︎}

E-mail is Simple, Secure and Robust If Decentralised and Treated as Text, Not as Web Pages (Also, Webmail is Regressive)

Posted in Google, Protocol, Security at 5:56 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Video download link | md5sum 9f1cb3590e5f61ccf065a38724f37fe0
E-mail is Not Web Pages
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: E-mail has become a sordid mess; even though E-mail by far predates the Web (nowadays it’s almost exclusively the latter) what many folks refer to as E-mail is basically some Web site and messages are in fact Web pages, not text

LAST night we wrote about Google's ongoing attack on E-mail, both as a protocol and as a service. Think of Gmail as an attack on E-mail, much in the same way that GitHub is an attack on Git. Gmail is not E-mail. Protocols and obstacles (for relays to please) are added all the time and when it comes to reading E-mail, nowadays people are expected to use “apps” that can’t even cope with plain-text E-mail (which is how Git is traditionally managed; Bugzilla can be the same). There’s an effort to herd people into sites like Googlemail/Gmail and Microsoft/GitHub, presenting them with JavaScript (typically proprietary) disguised as pages instead of simple text. This is bad for usability, security, and all sorts of other basic ‘fitness-for-purpose’ criteria. Ask a blind person about accessibility of GitLab, which became very little but a big pile of JavaScript.

The video above concerns this article about webmail problems. It offers “many reasons not to use “webmail” in place of e-mail — a case for commodity services, open standards, and free choice of client software” as our associate put it this morning.

E-mail is a simple protocol that predates the Web. Let’s not impose HTML and the Web on E-mail users. We’re ruining things. █

References:

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Permalink Mail Send this to a friend

ᶃ Gemini Space

Below is a Web proxy. We recommend getting a Gemini client/browser.

Black/white/grey bullet button This post is also available in Gemini over at this address (requires a Gemini client/browser to open).

✐ Cross-references

Black/white/grey bullet button Pages that cross-reference this one, if any exist, are listed below or will be listed below over time.

▢ Respond and Discuss

Black/white/grey bullet button If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

What Else is New

IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 29, 2023

IRC logs for Monday, May 29, 2023
MS (Mark Shuttleworth) as a Microsoft Salesperson

Canonical isn’t working for GNU/Linux or for Ubuntu; it’s working for “business partners” (WSL was all along about promoting Windows)
First Speaker in Event for GNU at 40 Called for Resignation/Removal of GNU's Founder

It’s good that the FSF prepares an event to celebrate GNU’s 40th anniversary, but readers told us that the speakers list is unsavoury, especially the first one (a key participant in the relentless campaign of defamation against the person who started both GNU and the FSF; the "FSFE" isn't even permitted to use that name)
When Jokes Became 'Rude' (or Disingenuously Misinterpreted by the 'Cancel Mob')

A new and more detailed explanation of what the wordplay around "pleasure card" actually meant
Site Updates and Plans Ahead

A quick look at or a roundup of what we've been up to, what we plan to publish in the future, what topics we shall focus on very soon, and progress moving to Alpine Linux
Links 29/05/2023: Snap and PipeWire Plans as Vendor Lock-in

Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/05/2023: GNU/Linux Pains and More

Links for the day
Links 29/05/2023: Election in Fedora, Unifont 15.0.04

Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/05/2023: Rosy Crow 1.1.1 and Smolver 1.2.1 Released

Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 28, 2023

IRC logs for Sunday, May 28, 2023
Daniel Stenberg Knows Almost Nothing About Gemini and He's Likely Just Protecting His Turf (HTTP/S)

The man behind Curl, Daniel Stenberg, criticises Gemini; but it's not clear if he even bothered trying it (except very briefly) or just read some inaccurate, one-sided blurbs about it
Links 29/05/2023: Videos Catchup and Gemini FUD

Links for the day
Links 28/05/2023: Linux 6.4 RC4 and MX Linux 23 Beta

Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/05/2023: Itanium Day, GNUnet DHT, and More

Links for the day
Links 28/05/2023: eGates System Collapses, More High TCO Stories (Microsoft Windows)

Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 27, 2023

IRC logs for Saturday, May 27, 2023
No More Twitter, Mastodon, and Diaspora for Tux Machines (Goodbye to Social Control Media)

People would benefit from mass abandonment of such pseudo-social pseudo-media.
Links 28/05/2023: New Wine and More

Links for the day
Links 27/05/2023: Plans Made for GNU's 40th Anniversary

Links for the day
Social Control Media Needs to be Purged and We Need to Convince Others to Quit It Too (to Protect Ourselves as Individuals and as a Society)

With the Tux Machines anniversary (19 years) just days away we seriously consider abandoning all social control media accounts of that site, including Mastodon and Diaspora; social control networks do far more harm than good and they’ve gotten a lot worse over time
Anonymously Travelling: Still Feasible?

The short story is that in the UK it's still possible to travel anonymously by bus, tram, and train (even with shades, hat and mask/s on), but how long for? Or how much longer have we got before this too gets banned under the false guise of "protecting us" (or "smart"/"modern")?
With EUIPO in Focus, and Even an EU Kangaroo Tribunal, EPO Corruption (and Cross-Pollination With This EU Agency) Becomes a Major Liability/Risk to the EU

With the UPC days away (an illegal and unconstitutional kangaroo court system, tied to the European Union in spite of critical deficiencies) it’s curious to see EPO scandals of corruption spilling over to the European Union already
European Patent Office (EPO) Management Not Supported by the EPO's Applicants, So Why Is It Still There?

This third translation in the batch is an article similar to the prior one, but the text is a bit different (“Patente ohne Wert”)
EPO Applicants Complain That Patent Quality Sank and EPO Management Isn't Listening (Nor Caring)

SUEPO has just released 3 translations of new articles in German (here is the first of the batch); the following is the second of the three (“Kritik am Europäischen Patentamt – Patente ohne Wert?”)
German Media About Industry Patent Quality Charter (IPQC) and the European Patent Office (EPO)

SUEPO has just released 3 translations of new articles in German; this is the first of the three (“Industrie kritisiert Europäisches Patentamt”)
Geminispace Continues to Grow Even If (or When) Stéphane Bortzmeyer Stops Measuring Its Growth

A Gemini crawler called Lupa (Free/libre software) has been used for years by Stéphane Bortzmeyer to study Gemini and report on how the community was evolving, especially from a technical perspective; but his own instance of Lupa has produced no up-to-date results for several weeks
Links 27/05/2023: Goodbyes to Tina Turner

Links for the day
HMRC: You Can Click and Type to Report Crime, But No Feedback or Reference Number Given

The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ were reported 7 days ago to HMRC (equivalent to the IRS in the US, more or less); but there has been no visible progress and no tracking reference is given to identify the report
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 26, 2023

IRC logs for Friday, May 26, 2023
One Week After Sirius Open Source Was Reported to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for Tax Fraud: No Response, No Action, Nothing...

One week ago we reported tax abuses of Sirius ‘Open Source’ to HMRC; we still wait for any actual signs that HMRC is doing anything at all about the matter (Sirius has British government clients, so maybe they’d rather not look into that, in which case HMRC might be reported to the Ombudsman for malpractice)