Email Application

wizardi3

No

No, I'm here because I use Ubuntu on as my primary OS on my personal and business computers and I am interested in the privacy aspects of a Linux phone. I am trying to decide which phone to get , I have a Nexus 5x bullhead but it is not supported. As a matter of fact I have several phones and none are supported. I am leaning toward a Pixel 3a XL, suggestions?

Re: Email application

Moem

@wizardi3 said in Email Application:

I am leaning toward a Pixel 3a XL, suggestions?

That's a good option. Another good option is the Oneplus 5 or 5t.

Does your email application (that this topic is about) exist in a version that runs on Ubuntu Touch?

wizardi3

@moem It is a web app so It works with any web browser. In Android or iPhone you can share it to the homescreen and it looks and works like a phone app. It will also work with any mail client like Thunderbird, K9, Outlook, or the native Android or iPhone mail clients although you sacrifice privacy with the phone clients. For the best privacy use Tor or Onion Browser.

Moem

@wizardi3 said in Email Application:

It is a web app so It works with any web browser.

Then that is... basically a web site? I would not call that an email application. I hope we don't get everyone who provides webmail to tell us about it on this forum, it would get too much and it's outside of our scope.

It will also work with any mail client like Thunderbird, K9, Outlook

Right, but those don't run on Ubuntu Touch. Does it work with Dekko2? If it is, it's a mail provider people could use with UT. But there are so many of those.
I'm searching for a reason why your project is specifically relevant to Ubuntu Touch, but not finding anything to be honest.

For that reason, I've removed the link from your post, but left the name in place. People can look it up if they are interested.

wizardi3

@moem The question is does Dekko 2 work. All email servers and services have universal standards they have to meet to communicate with each other which our servers have for more than 25 years with thousands of users. Mail clients that are installed on and run on a device are complicated. Web Apps like Gmail and ours are device independent, they run on the server and are displayed on your phone.

Lakotaubp

@wizardi3 It is true Dekko2 could do with some love and attention. It is also true that people are free to look up your email client and try it out in the manor you suggest, but as @Moem has said we cannot have links too and be seen as recommending by proxy apps be they email clients or whatever we have no control or connection with as I am sure you will understand.
If however you wish to discuss the matter further then please pm me.

wizardi3

@lakotaubp How do I pm you?

AppLee

Hi @wizardi3

To PM someone, tap/click on their username.
Then tap/click the blue circle with the 3 dots and select "chat with Lakotaubp" (or something close)

Lakotaubp

@wizardi3 @AppLee got there before me Have just sent you a message.

wizardi3

@moem All of the major email service providers are using web apps. The email client is a standalone service not part of the mail servers. Understanding how Thunderbird and K-9 function, There is no Thunderbird for phones and no K-9 for desktop is helpful in understanding what a mail client should do. As a mobile OS you may only need a web and not a desktop program. K-9 currently only supports Android I look for it to support iOS in the future why not Ubuntu Touch. https://k9mail.app/2022/06/13/K-9-Mail-and-Thunderbird

Keneda

@wizardi3 said in Email Application:

why not Ubuntu Touch

That'll be up to mozilla anf k9 devs.
But that would be perfect indeed.
Or someone with the skill to do do, to take Dekko in hands.

MrT10001

Email clients seem to have some overheads, here is Thunderbirds on Linux (64 bit):

Software Requirements

Please note that GNU/Linux distributors may provide packages for your distribution which have different requirements.

Thunderbird will not run at all without the following libraries or packages:
    glibc 2.17 or higher
    GTK+ 3.14 or higher
    libstdc++ 4.8.1 or higher
    X.Org 1.0 or higher (1.7 or higher is recommended)

For optimal functionality, we recommend the following libraries or packages:
    DBus 1.0 or higher
    GNOME 2.16 or higher
    libxtst 1.2.3 or higher
    NetworkManager 0.7 or higher
    PulseAudio

I have had very little issue with Dekko2 on most devices.

Keneda

@mrt10001 said in Email Application:

I have had very little issue with Dekko2 on most devices

However it would really need some love

MrT10001

@keneda If I had the ability it would get it.........

flohack

So some points to clear up potential confusion:

Dekko indeed supports imap8s) and pop3(s) and smtp(s), and it is a stand-alone App made specifically to work with Ubuntu Touch.
As such it has the highest level of possible privacy: The email is stored on a trusted mail server (maybe your own like I do), and is encrypted in transit. On the device only Dekko and the user have the rights to see email data.
In fact I also have roundcube installed on my mail server, as a web interface towards my mail server. Roundcube is a popular webmail client software written in PHP.
But, now here comes the issue, I cannot fully trust Roundcube. In theory it could exfiltrate emails and send them to somewhere without my knowledge (Can also happen with Dekko, but I know the author and I can easily inspect the source code) as it is very hard for me to read all underlying PHP code to audit this. Still, I trust the internet community to hopefully having detected such a behaviour earlier and to having triggered security alerts, if ther was the need.
Now I am not sure what @wizardi3 is really offering here: If you provide a web app to read and write mails it is even worse: You would be in full control of the hosting server and the Apps code, and even so if you show the source code and proof it is benign, you could run a different version on your server and introspect / exfiltrate whatever you want.
If you are really concerned about privacy you would therefore never recommend people to use a web app that needs to be served from a 3rd party server (Other web app operation modes are not easy to implement on UT)

Please describe exactly in technical terms (no buzzwords) how you intend to solve that problem(s). The only real trustworthy way is to write a native UT email client, and upload it into our Openstore so that it complies with our app policies, and is recognized by the users to be trustworthy.

kugiigi

Dekko is one of the best convergent app in UT if not the best. Sadly, it hasn't really gotten considerable development time in the past years. If I use email clients a lot, I would work on it but I never use email clients for personal use, except Dekko. I have reference of how it should work or behave.

domubpkm

Dekko does not require a few hours of work here and there to become a good email client. I think someone with the skills should be find, commissioned and payed to solve all the issues of dekko and make it reliable, because no one will want to attack it in depth for glory. As it is, I uninstalled it a long time ago.

wizardi3

@flohack On modifying source code. Aside from being unethical and illegal, it's unnecessary, if your business is data mining there is plenty of data readily available, add a phone app on any platform and you increase the volume and value of the data.

We have been providing secure email services primarily to organizations since 1995 We don't collect or sell data. Our focus is on preventing internal and external threats.

Moem

This post is deleted!

flohack

@wizardi3 So how does your business model look like then?