My first personal e-mail way back in the 90s was with my ISP. Then I changed ISPs and saw the problem with that. So I moved to Yahoo.
Some years later, in the 00s I just decided to get my own, paid for, Internet domain and have my e-mail there, even though I could’ve carried on using Yahoo or get Google Mail (very popular amongst techies back then) for free. The main reason was that I realized I must made sure the e-mail address was MINE, not actually owned by somebody else with me allowed to use it under their conditions.
Twenty years later and guess it was pretty wise to not have my e-mail in the claws of “Definitelly Do Evil” Google.
Experience using and living with Tech, mainly once your understanding of it reaches the level of understanding systemic elements, naturally informs ones choices in Tech, and that often means chosing something else than the mass marketed “popular” stuff that’s designed to lock you in, sell you stuff or sell your attention to others and eavesdrop on you and sell your data.
Another perspective. You got lucky that the dependencies you’re working with haven’t gotten as bad as the ones for Gmail and the like. Sure you’ve got a domain, but you’ve also got a domain registrar you’re dependent on. Yeah, you’ve got your own email server, but it’s dependent on open source software, and the monopolists allowing it to still connection, though that’s getting iffy. You’re also dependent on the kindness of a number of people continuing to contribute to Linux, and it not being compromised in some way.
I made a different choice 25 years ago, and went with Gmail, but the idea that you’re smarter because your dependencies didn’t turn to sh*t is as much luck as skill. 25 years is several eternities in tech, and there are no guaranteed outcomes.
Literally the worst that can happen to me if I’m really really unlucky is end up tied down to a single provider, same as you.
There were already 100s of registars back then (and as of 2024 there were over 2000) along with a standardized process for moving a domain to another registar, all regulated by an international regulator, ICANN.
Given that ease of migration is guaranteed by ICANN, making the market highly competitive, the only real risk that this entire system end up “consolidated” is if ICANN is totally subverted, a pretty tall order considering it’s in the interest of every single country in the World and millions of businesses (who also have domain names) that it is not, so that’s highly unlikely.
Meanwhile Google is just one and has always been just one. From the very start there was NEVER any perspective of there being more than one provider of gmail addresses so there was NEVER any perspective of being able to move away from Google and still keep your e-mail address if Google screwed you in some way. As for all your e-mails, those were always freely accessible to Google and they could always do whatever they want with that data.
In simple terms, you chose to be Google’s bitch and hope that they don’t screw you over too badly, whilst I, maybe, if I’m really really unlucky and an entire international system for domain name regulation is subverted against the interests of all countries in the World and most businesses, might one day at worst end up in the same situation as you.
I’m afraid your face-saving risk “analysis” on this is hilariously bad.
If you have your own domain, you aren’t stuck with your dependencies. Swapping registrars is a straight forward porting procedure. Swapping hosting is a matter of replacing 5 or so DNS entries. It took me about 20 minutes to reconfigure my domain’s email when I decided I didn’t want to use Proton anymore.
I suppose you can’t know that, but your odds on betting on a whole industry are better than a single company. Not to mention, the barrier to entry for a registrar becoming accredited really isn’t that high, so I wouldn’t expect market consolidation unless ICANN changes the process, at which point shit is fucked regardless.
Exactly.
My first personal e-mail way back in the 90s was with my ISP. Then I changed ISPs and saw the problem with that. So I moved to Yahoo.
Some years later, in the 00s I just decided to get my own, paid for, Internet domain and have my e-mail there, even though I could’ve carried on using Yahoo or get Google Mail (very popular amongst techies back then) for free. The main reason was that I realized I must made sure the e-mail address was MINE, not actually owned by somebody else with me allowed to use it under their conditions.
Twenty years later and guess it was pretty wise to not have my e-mail in the claws of “Definitelly Do Evil” Google.
Experience using and living with Tech, mainly once your understanding of it reaches the level of understanding systemic elements, naturally informs ones choices in Tech, and that often means chosing something else than the mass marketed “popular” stuff that’s designed to lock you in, sell you stuff or sell your attention to others and eavesdrop on you and sell your data.
Another perspective. You got lucky that the dependencies you’re working with haven’t gotten as bad as the ones for Gmail and the like. Sure you’ve got a domain, but you’ve also got a domain registrar you’re dependent on. Yeah, you’ve got your own email server, but it’s dependent on open source software, and the monopolists allowing it to still connection, though that’s getting iffy. You’re also dependent on the kindness of a number of people continuing to contribute to Linux, and it not being compromised in some way.
I made a different choice 25 years ago, and went with Gmail, but the idea that you’re smarter because your dependencies didn’t turn to sh*t is as much luck as skill. 25 years is several eternities in tech, and there are no guaranteed outcomes.
Literally the worst that can happen to me if I’m really really unlucky is end up tied down to a single provider, same as you.
There were already 100s of registars back then (and as of 2024 there were over 2000) along with a standardized process for moving a domain to another registar, all regulated by an international regulator, ICANN.
Given that ease of migration is guaranteed by ICANN, making the market highly competitive, the only real risk that this entire system end up “consolidated” is if ICANN is totally subverted, a pretty tall order considering it’s in the interest of every single country in the World and millions of businesses (who also have domain names) that it is not, so that’s highly unlikely.
Meanwhile Google is just one and has always been just one. From the very start there was NEVER any perspective of there being more than one provider of gmail addresses so there was NEVER any perspective of being able to move away from Google and still keep your e-mail address if Google screwed you in some way. As for all your e-mails, those were always freely accessible to Google and they could always do whatever they want with that data.
In simple terms, you chose to be Google’s bitch and hope that they don’t screw you over too badly, whilst I, maybe, if I’m really really unlucky and an entire international system for domain name regulation is subverted against the interests of all countries in the World and most businesses, might one day at worst end up in the same situation as you.
I’m afraid your face-saving risk “analysis” on this is hilariously bad.
I think there’s a wider point here, open source is the good long term bet
If you have your own domain, you aren’t stuck with your dependencies. Swapping registrars is a straight forward porting procedure. Swapping hosting is a matter of replacing 5 or so DNS entries. It took me about 20 minutes to reconfigure my domain’s email when I decided I didn’t want to use Proton anymore.
And you knew 25 years ago that the market wouldn’t consolidate down to 1-2 registrars?
I suppose you can’t know that, but your odds on betting on a whole industry are better than a single company. Not to mention, the barrier to entry for a registrar becoming accredited really isn’t that high, so I wouldn’t expect market consolidation unless ICANN changes the process, at which point shit is fucked regardless.