alt Hacker NewsI think in the future, we need stable, minimal implementations of services: Minimal because a small attack surface is crucial in the age of AI and slop coding/attacks. Minimal also because core services, like the Unix philosophy, do one thing and do it well. We don't need big tech breaking core services by continuously pushing new 'features' (slop, surveillance-ware, ad trackers, etc.).
The future demands small, stable core services, and mail service should be a small core service commodity that has been defined and solved (protocol wise) a long time ago already - we only need to make it an accessible commodity for all without the big tech entanglement.
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We need decentralisation coupled with a reliance on shared protocols, like we used to have before platforms took over everything and anti-trust legislation became meaningless.
The problem is that making a business out of "less" is hard. Especially when dealing with the hellscape that is "enterprise sales". Both the marketing people and the customer love piling on additional features!
Two decades ago I was at a startup that moved from a Linux email solution to a Microsoft one. Why? For the CEO's blackberry and calendar integration.
There are loads of FOSS email solutions and providers. There are fewer "email+calendar" providers, and there are even fewer "email+calendar+desktop logon SSO" providers.