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FOSDEM PWA

Webmail, the new generation

K.4.201 | Day 1 | 10:35 - 11:00 | Speakers: Arnt Gulbrandsen

Webmail, the new generation
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Notes

Abstract

There are almost half a dozen new opensource webmail systems that you can host yourself now, after a decade of little development. One of them is so good that after testing it for my work, I've grown to use it almost every day privately. Several of their developers attend FOSDEM this year and may talk about their software in depth, this talk covers them as a group. It's mostly for an audience that (may) want to self-host (again).

What sets the new webmail systems apart from the old ones, how do they compare to Google's and Microsoft's polished offerings, how do they compare to each other? I'll talk about all of that, and since I am a standards wonk there is a risk that I may digress into how well or badly they use the standards.

I'll mostly talk about Snappymail¸Alps, Kurrier and Mox.

Speakers

Arnt Gulbrandsen

Longtime linux/unix nerd and IETF email/DNS person.

I've been a linux user since august 1992, which was a hard time, we didn't have a proper bootloader yet and Linus released kernels faster than I could carry floppies home from university. Also we had to walk uphill through the snow to get to the vt220 and access the internet. A few years later I helped found one of the first opensource companies (and Stallman called for my personal bankruptcy), and I wrote my first RFC around the same time. Thirty years later I now work for ICANN, making email and the DNS work for all the people, not just those who read and write the latin alphabet.

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