Ask HN: Why do some of the engineers/hackers manage their own mail servers? I want to know why do some engineers/hackers have email setup on their private domains. I like most of the people use gmail. Is the desire to learn how to manage the system makes people have their own private mail servers? I don't really see security or privacy as an issue unless gpg is used extensively. Do you configure/setup/manage the mail servers yourself or is it handled by the hosting service providers? |
Setting up your own email server will teach you the fundamental building blocks of managing a server and all the protocols involved.
To run one reliably, it takes skill.
And it's nice geek credentials..I run my own email server :)
1. Own domain means you can brand, host other services on it and generally be flexible. It also means you don't end up with the equivalent of an @aol.com or @hotmail.com address for everything.
2. Hosting it yourself also gives you options. 10 years ago gmail didn't exist and many providers charged a lot to host personalised domain (which were seen as a business service). I still keep it because:
a. I used to manage big email setups, re-building a little one was fun practice for a few hours
b. I don't really like gmail's interface.
c. A significant amount of work copying a couple of gigabytes of old email into gmail
d. If Google change some policy 5 years down the track I'll be stuck with it.
e. Trying not to tie my entire life into google.
These days I run OpenSMTPD ( https://www.opensmtpd.org/ ) on a server out of my house because I want to minimize my cloud footprint, and OpenSMTPD is orders of magnitude easier to configure than other mail software, and was designed from the ground up to be maximally secure. I've also got it locked to require STARTSSL, which is not recommended but works for the mail I get.
I also don't like being dependent on a free service that could at any time have a policy shift I don't like. Or simply be shut down; unlikely as that seems for gmail, the internet is littered with the corpses of services that seemed solid until they weren't.
If I were to do it now it'll be just to keep my archived mail out of someone else's servers. However, I do trust my current email provider. At the moment I feel like I get much more benefit short and long term by using these people's mail service.