this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
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(Webmail provider releases a bespoke desktop app)
(me, old fart, bumbles out from behind the cables and servers and muck)
You fools! Have any of you whippersnappers ever heard of IMAP? No? Thought so.
[I'm not that familiar with ProtonMail. Chances are they already support IMAP. In which case: ... ....why? Why this? Why in this day and age?]
It's worse than you thought.
The webmail provider released a dedicated browser that can only open the webmail and called it a "desktop" app.
Additionally, they don't support IMAP. There's an app to run on your computer that becomes a bridge. The proprietary protocol is translated to IMAP. You can't use your favorite client if your operating system can't run that bridge and you're not a premium user because for "reasons" only premium users can run that local bridge
On a lighter note, the protocol might be proprietary but the bridge still seems to be fully open source : https://github.com/ProtonMail/proton-bridge
I don't think think Proton shows bad will on this one. The only alternative I can think of (as a non expert) would be IMAP + GPG encrypted emails but very few desktop clients support GPG, which would make them less accessible 🤷♂️ Having their own protocol also probably makes it much much easier for them to iterate on it, opening up usually makes think much robust but also slower.
The bridge Is "open" but somehow it works only for premium users.