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+Title: Bye Protonmail
+Date: 2023-11-21
+Category:
+Tags:
+Slug: bye-protonmail
+Lang: en
+Summary:
+    I left Protonmail. Here is why. I still like them to some degree though.
+
+
+The other day in the fediverse a friend of mine asked me about Protonmail.
+I explained a little bit my feelings and Protonmail jumped in, making me
+finally explain further. I think the conversation is interesting enough to
+share here[^deleted].
+
+[^deleted]: My posts in Mastodon are also automatically deleted so if you try
+    to read it later in there you might not find it. I'm copying it here as a
+    reference.
+
+<section class="masto-thread">
+
+<article class="masto-toot">
+<a href="https://mastodon.social/@ekaitz_zarraga"> Ekaitz Zárraga 👹 </a>
+<p>I really like <code>@protonmail</code> but they are always getting in the way
+with their non-standard things and their bridge which is FULL of dependencies
+and it's impossible to package for some systems.</p>
+
+<p>They are pushing me away from them too hard...</p>
+
+<p>I won't be surprised if finally push me away from their service in the mid
+term... after many years of trusting them for my business and personal email...
+It's a real shame.</p>
+</article>
+
+<article class="masto-toot">
+<a href="https://mastodon.social/@protonmail"> Proton Mail</a>
+
+<p><code>@ekaitz_zarraga</code> Can you let us know what kind of dependencies you're
+referring to?</p>
+</article>
+
+
+<article class="masto-toot">
+<a href="https://mastodon.social/@ekaitz_zarraga"> Ekaitz Zárraga 👹 </a>
+
+<p><code>@protonmail</code> the Proton bridge has many dependencies:<br>
+<a href="https://github.com/ProtonMail/proton-bridge/blob/master/go.mod">
+https://github.com/ProtonMail/proton-bridge/blob/master/go.mod</a></p>
+
+<p>Packaging all of them for a distribution is a huge effort. I don't think you
+are really aware of the level of work it requires. Also, you have a .deb and a
+.rpm package, which are precompiled... forcing your users to trust those.</p>
+
+<p>My distro and my work are focused on reproducible builds and
+bootstrappability... some serious concerns you don't take in account.</p>
+</article>
+
+<article class="masto-toot">
+<a href="https://mastodon.social/@ekaitz_zarraga"> Ekaitz Zárraga 👹 </a>
+
+<p><code>@protonmail</code> Also, don't get me wrong. I love protonmail and its
+ideas but I think you are too focused on "normal" users and breaking other
+people's setups without giving much in exchange. I feel like a second class
+user in protonmail, as my distro doesn't support .deb or .rpm packages... and I
+need to use plain text email pretty often (which you don't really support in
+the web either).</p>
+</article>
+
+<article class="masto-toot">
+<a href="https://mastodon.social/@ekaitz_zarraga"> Ekaitz Zárraga 👹 </a>
+
+<p><code>@protonmail</code> I love protonmail, and I'd love to fix these issues, I
+would even make a reproducible bridge for you if you ask me to. But I don't
+have the energy to do it by myself. It's simply not possible to package.</p>
+
+<p>So, here we are. As much as I'd like to continue to work with you and support
+you, I don't feel I can do it anymore</p>
+</article>
+</section>
+
+<style>
+.masto-toot {
+    border: 2px solid var(--border-color);
+    border-radius: 10px;
+    margin: 1rem;
+    padding: 1rem;
+}
+</style>
+
+Not long later I simply moved my email out of protonmail, to a different
+platform. An Europe based email provider that provides an interaction based on
+standards. Standards I can use with **any** setup, in **any** machine.
+
+I wouldn't care to have a non-standard solution if the Protonmail Bridge
+application worked, but they only provide `.deb` and `.rpm` packages. I can't
+package the app, because it has too many dependencies to be done in an
+acceptable amount of time.
+
+Also, the Web client is getting more and more complex. My anti-tracking plugins
+(like jShelter) tell me they are fingerprinting me when I reach the login
+screen. Why? Who knows. I contacted them and told them about this and, of
+course, I didn't talk with a technical person, because you are not supposed to
+do that, so I don't think my words reached anyone that could understand them,
+or consider them.
+
+Maybe it's me who changed. I don't need the default PGP configuration anymore
+because I can configure it myself, I realized I am more in the need of being
+able to easily `git send-email` than using a beautiful Web UI that tracks me or
+uses modern JS features. I use a weird distro now, which shouldn't be a problem
+but it happens to be, and I realized having too many dependencies in the code
+is often a problem in several dimensions.
+
+So, something that happens too often in my life happened again: being a
+technical user has been punished again in favour of the concept of *dumb
+users*. The funny thing of all this is I don't think *dumb users* exist. We
+should discuss that another time.
+
+They are a company, they want to grow, so they must try to sell for the
+*baseline* user. The minimal amount of knowledge a person can have. Selling a
+product for "expert" users is lost money, there are not that many "experts" in
+this world after all. So it's easier to add layers and layers of complexity to
+your software in order to provide a *dumb proof* interface, instead of
+educating your userbase, or letting the educated ones to customize their stuff.
+Don't get me wrong, it makes perfect sense, and Protonmail's mission is to
+provide default encryption to the largest proportion of email users possible so
+the decision fits their mission[^good].
+
+The default encryption and the "easy" PGP key setup Protonmail offers is really
+cool for users that don't require more level of customization. I still like the
+goals of the company but I could've used a simpler way to customize my
+experience: maybe a simpler bridge? Maybe something else.. I don't know.
+
+In the end, they pushed me away from their service.
+
+So long, Protonmail. It's been a good time together.
+
+[^good]: Regardless of anything I said here, they are making many people
+    encrypt their email, one way or another, and I'll continue to do so. That
+    is valuable.