neilv
5 hours ago
K-9 is great. I think I first used it ~14 years ago, happily for years, then couldn't use it due to various phone changes, then, after I moved from iPhone to GrapheneOS a few years ago, I was happy to find that K-9 was available.
My first concern about Mozilla taking over K-9 is that it not get privacy-violating phoning-home, nor dark patterns pushing that, like Firefox has.
For example, there's zero technical need for an email program to phone home to Mozilla when you configure it for a new email server.
Nor is there a technical need for a Mozilla "sync service" for K-9 settings, nor for dark patterns pushing users to use it.
immibis
5 hours ago
Depends what it's sending. I don't blame Mozilla for wanting to know the distribution of number of email servers (this influences UX decisions) nor for defaulting sync to something that Just Works (that's the reason everyone uses Apple and Google products after all, they Just Work).
My concern is they'll just make it worse. My other concern is they felt the need to use the same Thunderbird brand on several independent products.
kylebenzle
5 hours ago
That is unfair and a mischaracterization of Mozilla.
1. Most people are not using a fully encrypted self-hosted email server. "Phoning home" is meaningless if everything is already hosted in the cloud, more like the cloud phoning the cloud. But point taken, it is one MORE person with access to your data.
2. Again, sync services are helpful for most people and can easily be disabled for power users.
3. Mozilla is doing as much for free software as anyone and should be supported in this expansion.
AyyEye
3 hours ago
> That is unfair and a mischaracterization of Mozilla.
No, it's exactly how mozilla operates. They are nothing more than controlled opposition almost fully funded by google to the tune of nearly $1bbn and an adtech corp in their own right.
> 1. Most people are not using a fully encrypted self-hosted email server. "Phoning home" is meaningless if everything is already hosted in the cloud, more like the cloud phoning the cloud.
Some of us are.
> But point taken, it is one MORE person with access to your data.
Not just one more, one more giant database (and therefore giant target). My server provider isn't trawling through my server looking for datasets to sell. It's not worth their time for a couple of cents/dollars. But when you can mass-collect data from every user of software, prepackaged in a nice homogeneous gift wrap it is both easier to collect and worth more.
> 2. Again, sync services are helpful for most people and can easily be disabled for power users.
Email can be autoconfigured with nothing more than a username and password. Mozilla could trivially store k9-specific settings directly on the email server. Cheaper (more efficient use of funds), easier to maintain, No privacy leaks and no dependence on mozilla. But there lies the rub.
> 3. Mozilla is doing as much for free software as anyone and should be supported in this expansion.
No, they should stop doing everything that's not firefox and even that should be met with fierce pushback since they don't seem to care about a free and open internet until they are made to.
tredre3
4 hours ago
When you add an account in Thunberbird desktop, it sends your domain to Mozilla. This is namely done for autoconfiguration (populate server names and ports).
The problem with this is that it's just a dumb database (it doesn't check SRV and TXT entries) and as such, the database should really be client-side. The entire thing is just a pretext so that they can collect of all mail domains used by users.
This isn't very Privacy-friendly.