Bug: Mailspring is an abandoned project.

[valentt]

Mailspring is unfortunately abandoned project, and their infrastructure is falling apart.

Emails from Mailspring are being filtered by security software because links in email (image in your signature and all other links) that link to Mailspring links which have expired certificate and are triggering security software to block those emails. But now the whole website is down so any links that you send don't work!!!

For example in my signature I have link to my home page for 3D printing service - https://3dtvornica.hr, but that link is encapsulated in Mailspring link that tracks if someone clicks that links or not:

https://link.getmailspring.com/link/ACF0D8FD-5BE5-4A34-8D58-8819FBCEF3EE@getmailspring.com/1?redirect=https%3A%2F%2F3dtvornica.hr&recipient=ZHVzYW5fdnJiYW5lY0B5YWhvby5jb20%3D

So this is complete failure.

I have tried to contact developer, yes there is only a single developer, but he is completely unresponsive.

This is a dead project and dead product.

I'm interested to find a replacement for Mailspring ASAP, today, so I'll dig deep into research and chose a better product that works that replaces Mailspring.

[13pixlar]

@foundry376 Can you confirm this?

[IngwiePhoenix]

Via: https://serverfault.com/a/661982/307811

ingwie@DESKTOP-LMR6I2A ~ $ echo | openssl s_client -showcerts -servername getmailspring.com -connect getmailspring.com:443 2>/dev/null | openssl x509 -inform pem -noout -text
Certificate:
    Data:
        Version: 3 (0x2)
        Serial Number:
            0e:eb:4b:ba:d4:86:e7:03:a3:93:dd:c1:f3:0f:02:38
        Signature Algorithm: sha256WithRSAEncryption
        Issuer: C = US, O = Amazon, OU = Server CA 1B, CN = Amazon
        Validity
            Not Before: Jun 27 00:00:00 2020 GMT
            Not After : Jul 27 12:00:00 2021 GMT
        Subject: CN = *.getmailspring.com
        Subject Public Key Info:
            Public Key Algorithm: rsaEncryption
                RSA Public-Key: (2048 bit)
                Modulus:
                    00:af:13:54:b3:ae:71:14:7e:b2:8e:83:8a:0d:1a:
                    22:73:10:73:26:a5:95:1f:94:ee:1a:02:24:64:da:
                    00:ee:82:e4:b0:5d:a1:58:83:be:1f:56:f4:22:fc:
                    2b:d9:0e:1c:f5:d8:f3:05:f8:e2:27:08:37:41:ab:
                    cf:ff:d4:27:03:a8:9b:b4:39:b6:b0:82:ee:e9:c6:
                    2e:53:fd:68:d0:76:da:9d:94:58:e6:a5:e0:d9:70:
                    cf:a6:91:92:ca:3c:a1:66:9b:10:ff:b4:56:22:fa:
                    55:a0:72:b2:95:62:b3:ec:e6:23:78:db:50:f3:05:
                    10:eb:28:c9:c7:d8:62:50:bb:9d:33:31:b1:5e:8c:
                    29:ad:f6:90:98:fe:97:9a:5d:fb:59:f1:e8:d1:4e:
                    f8:17:4a:d1:5b:c3:ac:42:b1:7a:3a:fb:43:7d:92:
                    e7:b9:16:73:bc:a5:e5:e8:e5:04:d9:31:46:a6:e0:
                    59:7b:44:a4:e5:a3:96:45:a1:19:e6:37:c5:8b:dd:
                    c4:c0:1e:70:2c:30:bd:6a:9c:fb:96:a1:58:4c:1d:
                    e4:b7:6b:7a:5c:70:e9:e7:99:b3:71:9e:0c:11:69:
                    03:bc:6f:61:7f:14:a9:15:09:88:24:83:34:ba:b3:
                    87:58:d1:20:82:1d:b2:38:24:f8:2f:91:98:51:17:
                    07:f3
                Exponent: 65537 (0x10001)
        X509v3 extensions:
            X509v3 Authority Key Identifier:
                keyid:59:A4:66:06:52:A0:7B:95:92:3C:A3:94:07:27:96:74:5B:F9:3D:D0

            X509v3 Subject Key Identifier:
                12:58:D1:E1:3B:BD:09:54:6D:F9:6D:08:F3:DC:55:30:07:4A:45:05
            X509v3 Subject Alternative Name:
                DNS:*.getmailspring.com, DNS:getmailspring.com
            X509v3 Key Usage: critical
                Digital Signature, Key Encipherment
            X509v3 Extended Key Usage:
                TLS Web Server Authentication, TLS Web Client Authentication
            X509v3 CRL Distribution Points:

                Full Name:
                  URI:http://crl.sca1b.amazontrust.com/sca1b.crl

            X509v3 Certificate Policies:
                Policy: 2.16.840.1.114412.1.2
                Policy: 2.23.140.1.2.1

            Authority Information Access:
                OCSP - URI:http://ocsp.sca1b.amazontrust.com
                CA Issuers - URI:http://crt.sca1b.amazontrust.com/sca1b.crt

            X509v3 Basic Constraints: critical
                CA:FALSE
            CT Precertificate SCTs:
                Signed Certificate Timestamp:
                    Version   : v1 (0x0)
                    Log ID    : F6:5C:94:2F:D1:77:30:22:14:54:18:08:30:94:56:8E:
                                E3:4D:13:19:33:BF:DF:0C:2F:20:0B:CC:4E:F1:64:E3
                    Timestamp : Jun 27 00:10:48.792 2020 GMT
                    Extensions: none
                    Signature : ecdsa-with-SHA256
                                30:46:02:21:00:FC:43:1C:E0:07:EF:0A:D2:79:C1:A7:
                                EA:FF:13:41:9A:2C:32:5F:2C:32:49:04:C0:5F:8F:CB:
                                AC:4F:2A:65:12:02:21:00:89:79:2B:34:B5:0F:3F:44:
                                BF:07:B8:9A:80:87:EA:2E:3B:74:EE:86:11:D3:2A:6E:
                                E5:56:E6:7E:65:89:1E:B5
                Signed Certificate Timestamp:
                    Version   : v1 (0x0)
                    Log ID    : 5C:DC:43:92:FE:E6:AB:45:44:B1:5E:9A:D4:56:E6:10:
                                37:FB:D5:FA:47:DC:A1:73:94:B2:5E:E6:F6:C7:0E:CA
                    Timestamp : Jun 27 00:10:48.840 2020 GMT
                    Extensions: none
                    Signature : ecdsa-with-SHA256
                                30:46:02:21:00:D3:AE:9A:E0:71:8D:8C:54:66:6C:F0:
                                04:49:E8:F2:46:25:64:85:44:78:65:E4:F6:A8:35:A6:
                                E8:E7:D7:55:DB:02:21:00:9E:7F:E9:A8:B3:5D:3C:4F:
                                BA:D6:ED:4A:85:89:AF:E0:6F:58:BA:75:0D:40:EB:B9:
                                C3:BC:C2:12:6F:0A:AA:0C
    Signature Algorithm: sha256WithRSAEncryption
         2c:54:fa:fd:98:ca:0b:98:c8:5f:9c:e9:53:58:79:37:af:b1:
         f4:f4:01:dc:f3:5e:02:3d:bf:33:18:d6:b5:da:82:07:ff:f6:
         66:48:59:54:07:a5:80:81:26:6b:58:32:1c:d4:df:e4:3a:a7:
         fc:d1:fc:bd:f5:7c:ae:1a:46:e5:de:0e:3a:91:bc:db:1f:bf:
         aa:a3:8c:4b:04:55:3e:1d:d1:cc:88:51:b8:5d:ea:51:c3:a5:
         df:61:0e:4d:2a:21:d0:04:35:db:2b:96:90:49:33:d6:df:c0:
         bc:8e:5d:d3:ac:07:e6:59:d9:f2:40:9b:6e:f1:5b:8d:ed:8f:
         a9:93:a9:85:cf:44:91:78:5f:97:9d:31:5d:30:84:29:27:2f:
         19:f2:22:e8:cb:cd:8a:ab:19:5b:ab:56:81:4f:75:2f:e9:ea:
         2f:d6:20:03:21:20:10:b2:c7:05:22:e1:60:13:fb:82:a1:26:
         8e:56:d3:f2:63:8a:40:8d:e5:d7:46:ff:de:c7:81:7c:62:25:
         d6:2b:ff:97:4b:26:6b:45:e8:43:4d:09:c7:59:77:82:7b:8d:
         47:96:db:b6:6f:11:f1:4f:fd:94:6b:60:bd:82:ad:b6:6b:14:
         2d:c6:82:47:88:8c:7d:b3:b8:d5:82:23:c4:df:33:ee:c2:d5:
         6b:7d:06:67

Important:

        Validity
            Not Before: Jun 27 00:00:00 2020 GMT
            Not After : Jul 27 12:00:00 2021 GMT

The certificate is still applicable. Website also still works.

Please refresh/reload your root certificate.

[lamixer]

Most importantly, I hope @Foundry376 Ben is well, these days more than usual people may be affected by illness or grief.

If he has abandoned the business I hope he is willing to open source the sync engine so that someone else can keep this nice mail client alive (Gnome team I'm looking at you, trade Geary for Mailspring).

I have been following Mailspring for a while and recently started using Mailspring-Libre, so I am not personally affected by the services portion of Mailspring ending ... if that indeed is the case.

[IngwiePhoenix]

So far Mailspring is the only mail client that has the "modern" three-column-stack view and vertical pane split that I like from macOS Mail and Windows Mail - but it also looks sleeker, is cross-platform and has neat features.

I'd hate for it to go away. I only switched to it like...two days ago? So yeah, would be a big bummer if it was abandoned.

[valentt]

@lamixer I tried to get response from @Foundry376 for weeks even before Covid-19 pandemic and didn't get a single reply because I couldn't download invoice which I needed for my accounting, and after week and few dozen tries to get a response I gave up.

Check out other bug that people reported few days ago, infrastructure if falling apart and Ben ie @Foundry376 probably has no resources to do things on his own and no money to pay team of people to manage everything. I know how that happens, because I also had managed few projects that have just died because there was not enough revenue from them to hire a team that needs to be there in order for product to work.

@IngwiePhoenix check out https://www.isitdownrightnow.com/link.getmailspring.com.html here is also confirms that site is completely down, and check this issue that is related - https://github.com/Foundry376/Mailspring/issues/2230

[valentt]

So far Mailspring is the only mail client that has the "modern" three-column-stack view and vertical pane split that I like from macOS Mail and Windows Mail - but it also looks sleeker, is cross-platform and has neat features.

I'd hate for it to go away. I only switched to it like...two days ago? So yeah, would be a big bummer if it was abandoned.

You can still use mail client if you don't use any of its proprietary features like link tracking, actually you can't send any links, reminders or read receipts, and no signature.

If you just use it for "plain" emails then it will still work for you.

[valentt]

Please refresh/reload your root certificate.

@IngwiePhoenix Please do the check for https://link.getmailspring.com You have tested the wrong server, this is where the problem is.

[valentt]

And I'm commercial user, I paid for Mailspring licence, and couldn't get a single email reply after week and weeks of tying to get in contact with Mailspring ie Ben in all ways I could think of. There is zero customer support even for paid customers of this product, which is a real shame because it is a really good product.

Ben is obviously an awesome developer but horrible product manager and horrible business manager because this is what you need also in order to have a successful product that people are satisfied with.

I haven't seen a worse support for any product that I have paid so far, Mailspring is the worst one, but it is a great product that I now have to find a replacement for.

I would pay another licence to Ben only if he would start sending invoices once I pay for the product because I have to have invoice for my accounting otherwise I'm in a legal problem.

[samtuke]

I was also a paying user, and would be again, but for lack of support. Unfortunately the server side was never released as open source so the project could not be fully forked, even if a potential maintainer was interested.

[valentt]

Just to be clear, I have no interest for this project to die, I would love that all freeloaders would pay @Foundry376 licence so he could hire a team of people to handle infrastructure and developer great new features for Mailspring. So if Ben is still around pay the licence, there is no such thing as free lunch, even developers have to eat something.

[lamixer]

Ben refused to sell/license the software only (not services) portion of Mailspring which is why it was forked to Mailspring-Libre, for the paranoid / security-conscious people who did not want to register a Mailspring ID. I personally would be willing to pay a moderate yearly fee for a modern email client to use with my own or my preferred IMAP provider, without hooks from Mailspring.

Ben may have been correct, however, that this revenue stream would barely add to his bottom line.

One business model that might have worked would have been to have fully open-sourced the client software, make a Mailspring account optional, but people like you @valentt could choose to pay for the services. But even this, I believe Ben mentioned he thought would be more trouble than it was worth -- that is, the amount of 'help' from the open source community versus the 'cost' of administering that.

It's a niche market in either case.

[WhyNotHugo]

@IngwiePhoenix Thunderbird has the three-panel layout too. View > Layout > Vertical View.

When it comes to webmail, Fastmail implements this same layout too.

[majkinetor]

TB added dark theme, PGP support etc in the meantime, which makes adoption strait forward IMO. Apart from eating much more memory when in tray, the experience is mostly the same today, but without big number of bugs mailspring has.

Be all that as it is, I still think mailspring is/was great thing, and hope that if it was abandoned, authors will choose to fully open source it.

[valentt]

TB

@majkinetor what is TB? Do you mean Thunderbird or some other mail client? Main killer feature of Mailspring is not darkmode or PGP, but having read notifications. Is there any way to have read mail and link clicking notifications within Thunderbird?

[majkinetor]

but having read notifications

Yeah, that is not in Thunderbird, but IMO it can be hacked into with some cheap infrastructure that hosts web server...

That is honestly the only thing that I miss so far

[charsi]

@valentt https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1018913

[majkinetor]

@charsi that is not what he talks about. This is feature that works probably via some "invisible dot" that pings your web server when user opens HTML mail. It works automatically and user can't prevent it unless he disables HTML.

[valentt]

but having read notifications

Yeah, that is not in Thunderbird, but IMO it can be hacked into with some cheap infrastructure that hosts web server...

That is honestly the only thing that I miss so far

I don't expect Thunderbird to have that feature build into it, but I would pay for 3rd party plug-in that would provide such feature.

[charsi]

A lot of webmails out there disable images in emails precisely to disable email tracking. So this feature can't be that reliable. But I guess you know your users have already allowed images in your emails. If you are sending bulk email as part of a campaign I think mailchimp etc will do that for you. But I can't find anything that adds this feature to normal emails.

[majkinetor]

@charsi, majority of users use HTML. Feature worked most of the time for me.

@valentt, I doubt this can finish as plugin, you need to host web server and have its logs so you can map your inserted dot to user. Lets say I add dot named by the unique mail id, then any access to it means somebody reads the mail containing it. If image is problematic due to mail client options, maybe some other non-image resource works (fonts, etc.)

Not sure if it works that way, but that is what comes to my mind. Maybe somebody else can point to concrete solution mailsink uses so we can see if there is another option.

[vdisp]

Agreed... I love knowing when someone opens my email and clicks on any links sent! A lot of the other paid features make this well worth it also. I have 12 email accounts that I manage and having them all in one spot, all with aliases and signatures setup for each one as well as the email templates snooze, reminders, etc. Also, once Mailspring is setup on all your PC's, being able to use seamlessly between Windows and Linux is a big PLUS. That's why I pay for the PRO. I've tried multiple email clients and have not found one I like better.

@majkinetor what is TB? Do you mean Thunderbird or some other mail client? Main killer feature of Mailspring is not darkmode or PGP, but having read notifications. Is there any way to have read mail and link clicking notifications within Thunderbird?

[vdisp]

@charsi: I have not come across another email client that provides the breakdown of information related to your email that Mailspring does. Especially within the application: https://imgur.com/J4Wteg4

A lot of webmails out there disable images in emails precisely to disable email tracking. So this feature can't be that reliable. But I guess you know your users have already allowed images in your emails. If you are sending bulk email as part of a campaign I think mailchimp etc will do that for you. But I can't find anything that adds this feature to normal emails.

[majkinetor]

I have 12 email accounts that I manage and having them all in one spot, all with aliases and signatures setup for each one as well as the email templates snooze, reminders, etc.

Being able to use seamlessly between Windows and Linux is a big PLUS.

I think TB has all of this. Some with plugins.

[vdisp]

If you're referring to Thunderbird, I tried it. It kept locking up my computer and was unusable for me. I gave up on it.

I have 12 email accounts that I manage and having them all in one spot, all with aliases and signatures setup for each one as well as the email templates snooze, reminders, etc.

Being able to use seamlessly between Windows and Linux is a big PLUS.

I think TB has all of this. Some with plugins.

[WhyNotHugo]

Regarding "read notifications": Mailspring implements this (as do many others), by exploiting security / privacy leaks in common email clients with poor defaults.

It includes an image with a unique URL on some server, and that server logs when the image is requested. This leaks not only when the email was opened, but also potentially, the recipient's IP address and other sensitive data.

No email client can provide realiable read notifications, since it relies on the recipient using an email client that leaks data. If your recipient has a decent email client with sensible defaults, you'll never know when they read your email.

IMHO, such features are not even ethical. Imagine getting a package in the mail that has a hidden camera to report that you've opened the box (and at what time and where).

[renguer0]

Mailspring-Lite is going to dead too?

That's sad, we love our e-mail client. It could be great that dev make it open source or do some campaign to keep it alive.

[majkinetor]

IMHO, such features are not even ethical.

Ethical maybe not, but practical sure is. You can not tell me any more that you didn't see my mail or that it finished in junk/spam. I don't even have to tell you, that I know, but information alone is valuable. It may even be most ethical thing to do depending on the context.

Ethical or not is less important for me - universe doesn't care - its the same if you leave your front dor open and then blame people on morality because they entered and took what they want. World is harsh place and you can't outsource your safety/privacy.

[charsi]

How to close the front door is common knowledge whereas this feature relies on the user's ignorance so not really comparable. Also what is your ethical stance on stealing if somebody does leave their door open?

[valentt]

IMHO, such features are not even ethical. Imagine getting a package in the mail that has a hidden camera to report that you've opened the box (and at what time and where).

@WhyNotHugo I have tracking on all my my packages that I send, I can see when package has been yesterday, and where it is today, and I'll get notification if package is not delivered if person is not at home to accept the delivery or if package has been delivered successfully. What is immoral in that process please explain it to me like I'm 5 years old.

For me it is not moral to eat any live creatures, are you meat eater @WhyNotHugo ? Is it moral for you pay for killing innocent animals that feel cruelty when they are being slaughtered? Is that moral for you or not?

[charsi]

Most people don't expect or understand emails can be tracked that way. Not the crime of the century but still not the most polite thing to be doing to people who don't understand tech.

[majkinetor]

How to close the front door is common knowledge

In your part of the world.

this feature relies on the user's ignorance so not really comparable

All propaganda depends on users ignorance, so all sales are unethical ? Lets have some perspective.

For me it is not moral to eat any live creatures,

Then you should invent your own universe, and stop living in this one.

Is it moral for you pay for killing innocent animals that feel cruelty when they are being slaughtered?

Yes, its moral. What is not moral is to punish other people because of your weird stance on this - given that you can't be healthy as vegetarian 99.999% of the time (I can go full scientific into this but not here), you are burden to medical system, your children and society as a whole. There are huge number of other reasons.

Most people don't expect or understand emails can be tracked that way.

Your expectancies or understandings are irrelevant for others. If you have trouble, you are the one to solve them, do not expect world to change for you. That IS natural.

[valentt]

Yes, its moral. What is not moral is to punish other people because of your weird stance on this - given that you can't be healthy as vegetarian 99.999% of the time (I can go full scientific into this but not here), you are burden to medical system, your children and society as a whole. There are huge number of other reasons.

Completely made up, there are many, many, many, research papers proving just the opposite. Please learn how to use Google Scholar and do some basic research before just giving your opinions that are easily checked as false.

Here is one study to get you started on your study path: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/6/11/4822

Abstract This review examines whether there is evidence that a strict vegan diet confers health advantages beyond that of a vegetarian diet or overall healthy eating. Few studies include vegan subjects as a distinct experimental group, yet when vegan diets are directly compared to vegetarian and omnivorous diets, a pattern of protective health benefits emerges. The relatively recent inclusion of vegan diets in studies of gut microbiota and health allows us the opportunity to assess whether the vegan gut microbiota is distinct, and whether the health advantages characteristic of a vegan diet may be partially explained by the associated microbiota profile. The relationship between diet and the intestinal microbial profile appears to follow a continuum, with vegans displaying a gut microbiota most distinct from that of omnivores, but not always significantly different from that of vegetarians. The vegan gut profile appears to be unique in several characteristics, including a reduced abundance of pathobionts and a greater abundance of protective species. Reduced levels of inflammation may be the key feature linking the vegan gut microbiota with protective health effects. However, it is still unclear whether a therapeutic vegan diet can be prescribed to alter the gut microflora for long-term health benefits.

[majkinetor]

Completely made up, there are many, many, many, research papers proving just the opposite. Please learn how to use Google Scholar and do some basic research before just giving your opinions that are easily checked as false.

I forgot more about medicine and nutrition so far then you will know in your lifetime. I read medical journals like you read spelling book.

Please don't cherry pick studies, its embarrassing . But lets not bring off topic discussion here.

[samtuke]

(Moderator needed to get this discussion back on track)

[bengotow]

Hey folks! (Mailspring maintainer here) The web services for Mailspring are currently down, but should be fixed shortly! It looks like the (load balanced + autoscaling) servers are still happily running so this didn't trigger any alerts, but the entire service is unreachable. It seems the AWS ALB just... abruptly gave up. After fixing this I'll have to see if I can add alerting on "general lack of traffic". 🤦‍♂️

In terms of the broader Mailspring project, I don't think it's abandoned but rather approaching feature-complete for me, it's solo maintainer. Everyone is welcome to contribute and every so often there are great pull requests. The certs and infrastructure are definitely staying online, and I'm actually paying for yet another $15,000 Google security audit so the app can use Google OAuth going into 2021. Going in to next year, I'll make sure I do a better job running releases and merging pull requests promptly. I know I've been side tracked and there hasn't been a release in a while.

If anyone is interested in stepping up and contributing pull requests for open issues, I'd really appreciate it! I've been a bit burned out by Mailspring issues this year and haven't spent as much time volunteering to bug-bash. I probably will again soon, both because some of the more recent issues with provider authentication seem serious, and also because I want to update the app a bit for Big Sur.

If anyone uses Linux or Windows as their native platform and wants to tackle bugs specific to those platforms, it'd be especially awesome. I know PGP support (one of the issues referenced above) has been on the back burner for years, and we really need someone with knowledge of that space to implement it well!

[alymoursy]

@bengotow As a paying customer, can you confidently say that I should be fine and don't need to find an alternative?

[bengotow]

Hey folks! Service should be restored now, it looks like AWS had just completely deleted the load balancer this morning - no record of it whatsoever. Really stumped by that... but we can alert on a drop in traffic so it should be more immediately detectable going forward.

@alymoursy thank you for subscribing to Mailspring Pro! Your subscription covers Mailspring's web services and Clearbit / translation API costs, etc. and is a big part of the reason I can keep it going into 2021. I really appreciate it. I was just talking to a friend of mine about how unruly (and sort of frustrating) Mailspring's Github issues are, and I'm looking at the new Actions and Plugins tools to see if we can tame them a bit. I'm hoping I can find tools to surface issues from subscribers better and ensure any issues you file make it to the top of the todo list. I hope you don't need to find an alternative, and I think the number of subscribers is low enough that I can address any requests as long as I can find them in the pile 🙏

[valentt]

Hey folks! Service should be restored now,

Hi Ben, nice to see that we paid customers will still have our favourite email client live and kicking in 2021 and onwards... But why did you not reply to any requests to my emails? I needed and invoice because there is also an issue with Mailsprint ID system not issuing invoices. I need a business invoice because I bought your licence for my business not with my private money. Can you please get in contact with me over email to sort this issue out. My email is valent@3dtvornica.hr - Thanks Ben!

[berti92]

@bengotow Maybe we could talk to each other, I'm from germany and search for a new opportunity or in short I would like to invest. If you are interested just reply me a mail address where I can reach you best.

[3v1n0]

@bengotow, Hey not sure if you saw this fork https://github.com/agent8/Mailspring/commits/db-refactor but lots of changes are happening there (or at https://github.com/agent8/Mailspring/commits/calendar-plugin), so I'm wondering if you or someone else has time to review it for including them into the main repo.

[mauriciopaim]

[spoiler alert: this is just a honest feedback/appeal in pro of this amazing app]

Mailspring is the best email app on Windows. Calendar would be a plus for sure, but I just want to point it out, that without this app, we are left with a bunch of crappy experiences for email.

Just logged in to mention that, cause it doesn't feel abandoned, I empathize with burnouts and feeling a bit down with so many issues.

I hope the projects stays alive and that the community actually start being grateful for this app.

Hope things get better Ben and that Mailspring have a long life

[lamixer]

@mauriciopaim If you are on Windows and don't need the unique backend features offered by Mailspring, you should look into Postbox.

[mauriciopaim]

@lamixer Thanks for pointing an alternative direction. From a user experience point of view, Postbox does OK, but its UI its cluttered compared to Mailspring. If I have to choose an alternative probably would go in the Postbox direction, but atm Mailspring serves me quite well.

[CodeMouse92]

Reminder all: @bengotow (the project owner) already responded above. There was a server issue, and 2020 happened besides.

If you've been sent here by one of the many "the project is dead" scare comments @valentt left all over the bug tracker, he spoke in haste. The project is alive. Please keep supporting it if you want it to stay that way!

[samtuke]

Is the project alive just because the one maintainer came back to leave a comment?

I'm also sympathetic to the pressures of running a business - it's hard and relentless work (I've managed 3 open source businesses and founded two). Nevertheless trust is earned, and it's been lost in 2020 among many of us paying customers.

Personally I'll consider this app in the process of being resuscitated for the next year or so until a track record of responsive support and meaningful updates has been established. Wishing Ben all the best with achieving this minimum level of service meanwhile.

[franktopel]

I love knowing when someone opens my email and clicks on any links sent!

I love when my email client does not compromise my privacy. If you sent me an email, I expect it to be solely my decision whether you get notified upon me opening it or clicking a link in it. PERIOD.

[franktopel]

I have tracking on all my my packages that I send, I can see when package has been yesterday, and where it is today, and I'll get notification if package is not delivered if person is not at home to accept the delivery or if package has been delivered successfully.

You are comparing apples with bananas. A real-world package has physical content, something you send on a journey which probably has some monetary value. Emails that carry privacy-leaking pieces are typically received unsolicited and want to sell something to me, and have no inherent value whatsoever. If this isn't completely clear to you, you probably belong to the side that tries to make profit from these privacy-leaking methods. And that is bad.

[ipa1981]

Gentlemen, I suggest to avoid off-topic. It is easily possible to open a separate issue specific to that. In any case, to wrap up, there will never be one size fits all, so it could be a configurable setting: for both privacy obsessed and opposing parties.

[WhyNotHugo]

I think the main issue here is that, the main selling PAID features of Mailspring are feature that rely on exploiting security holes in other users clients to violate their privacy.

Many of us want a good email client, but would never put a cent in the direction of Mailspring simply due to being hard against such unethical behaviours.

This is not that far off topic here: Mailspring will always have an uncertain future, since its source of funding is tied to those objectionable features.

Honestly, I don't see how anyone could argue they are ethical (though they may be useful). It's tracking that relies on others using software with weak default that leaks privacy information. It allows third parties to track what a person is doing in the privacy of their home without their consent or any sign of this happening. It's not akin to shipping a package where the recipient has to sign: it's akin to shipping a package with a concealed hidden camera to see the person open the package.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this were illegal in some parts. Retaining the recipient's IP is definitely illegal in some countries (though I don't believe this is being done in this case).

[CodeMouse92]

@WhyNotHugo I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you either did not read or chose not to believe these two explanations of read receipts and data tracking:

• https://foundry376.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001876351-How-does-Mailspring-perform-Open-Tracking-
• https://foundry376.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002704911-What-data-does-Mailspring-collect-when-I-use-the-product-

Truth is, every time you so much as visit a website, someone can tell that you accessed the resource. So, this is neither "illegal" nor "a security flaw" as some have weirdly claimed.

---

To everyone above who has been complaining instead of findings ways to help;

Can I suffice it to say, this entire thread is rather demanding in its nature — "hurry up and do what we say, even though you don't promise that as part of the deal with premium" — not to mention outright malicious at times, claiming the project is abandoned because the one maintainer is having a sucky year. I don't see anyone actually stepping up to clear the bugs from the open source half of the project.

I barely found this project myself, but as someone who's worked in open source for a long time, this is some of the worst abuse of a maintainer I've witnessed to date.

THE PROJECT IS NOT DEAD. Premium does not promise "support", but rather a few optional features that require a server to work. You're paying for that server. A few bucks a month does not entitle you to make long lists of demands of the maintainer, nor to misrepresent the features of his project as being "illegal" or "unethical" or "exploiting security flaws" when they are not. This is still indie software, not Outlook.

You all just made 2020 a little worse for someone with your fractious, entitled behavior, and as an outsider, I'm appalled. If you can do better than this, on your own time no less, let's see it. Otherwise, it's high time you recognize that maintaining a project of this scope, especially solo, is much harder than your entitled griping implies. Of course I want to see bugs fixed and new features added, but I also know that it's hard to find time to do that on a side-project.

@valentt, if you have a single ethical bone in your body, you will close this malicious little "issue" as invalid.

Everyone else, be a grown-up and let this thread die here. Mailspring is not dead. The sole maintainer merely got swamped. He does this on his own time.

This is open source. Put up or shut up.