Can MiaB help create a GMail killer? I think so

1

I’ve been trying to figure how to wrestle my data away from free service providers like Google. There’s lots of great OSS out there like OwnClound but the barrier to wider adoption high. MiaB is awesome in that in really does try to simplify the process. I started a project I’m calling the Free Data Foundation with the goal of participating in, supporting and maintaining OSS projects that can entice laymen away from increasingly Faustian bargain of “free” SaaS apps like GMail.

I’m posting here because I would like to adapt MiaB to create a one-click node deployment in a TOR-like volunteer project. Volunteers can run modified MiaB deployments that act as centralized MTAs to a network of distributed MDAs. The distributed MDAs will be pre-configured Raspberry Pis that (initially) will contain Dovecot, OwnCloud, and Roundcube.

User’s sign up and get a mailbox provisioned (for example, joeuser@freemail.com). A volunteer is running a MiaB node that uses a postfix transfer table to route incoming emails to joeuser@freemail.com to the dovecot instance running on Joe’s RPi.

There’s a lot more to it, but that’s the basic idea. I’d love to hear the community’s thoughts on the idea and if anyone is interested in contributing, I’d be mighty grateful :slight_smile:

2 Likes
2

nice idea though I think the TOR part should be configurable (it is becoming more and more unreliable as a security element).

Looking forward to follow the project and maybe even contribute at some point.

PS: funny that you use a gmail account yourself when speaking about getting rid of it :slight_smile:

3

The irony, right? I hope you will contribute once I get the POC up on github. I was just think last night that using a torrent-like protocol could allow users that can’t host their own MDAs to share with those that can. It would be a fairly complex dance but it could be done.

It wouldn’t be pure webmail because I would want to force encryption from the MTA-level. I can’t thin k of a secure way or idiot-proof way to let users decrypt their email via a web browser so there would need to be a custom MUA for the shared users. Maybe there’s a better way to achieve this goal? I’ve only been thinking about it for a couple hours so I’m sure there is!