Instead of leaving Xitter, they left Mastodon. Proton's trend is not inspiring confidence and this feels like another step backwards.
yet another reason to use mastodon, because they can't control it yet.
this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
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Can you even use Reddit if you’re running Proton’s VPN? I know Reddit has been actively blocking other VPNs (eg Mullvad) for some time.
I was wondering the same
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It's as if with each passing day, Proton wakes up and chooses to wear a slightly different red flag for a cape than the one they wore yesterday. I'm obviously being hyperbolic here, but I'm also a bit upset with myself for having decided to get an annual subscription with them last November.
I've heard good things about Mullvad for VPN and Tuta for mail. I've got my own domain that I can start using with whatever mail host I land on.
I'm in the U.S. What other mail providers are people using, and what other VPN providers should I be considering?
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Makes me glad that I procrastinated on switching over, I guess I’ll just ride out my current NordVPN subscription and switch over to Mullvad?
Almost makes me afraid to ask the community, what exactly is wrong with Nord? 😅
They've done other things, but the reason I don't use Nord is that they had a breach where an attacker had physical access to one of their servers, and they tried to sweep it under the rug rather than notify users.
Fair cop; I guess there’s always risks in renting space in a data centre (physical intrusion), and that response definitely isn’t the best.
Not enough for me to be a deal breaker currently, but will definitely switch when my plan expires.
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Unless you never want to torrent, I would say to not use mullvad, you can't forward a port with them (same with NordVPN). There are plenty of VPNs that don't log and allow port forwarding. I use AirVPN.
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I've been giving them the benefit of the doubt, but I'm kinda done with them. Anyone have any suggestions for a mail provider? I'm not yet willing to self-host that.
I've been happy with mailbox.org. I left proton after the boot licking. I had been a paying customer for years.
But are they on Mastodon? This is a very important factor for my purchasing decision.
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I wish VPS providers didn't commonly block email ports. Self hosting seems like the only way to stay in control
It's understandable though, they just don't want to deal with email spammers.
Funny how they didn’t make actual post on Mastodon, but just silently edited their profile to say they left Mastodon? That’s pretty cowardly.
Yet another reason to not like Proton.
If you're looking to shake up your email provider in the wake of this, I highly recommend getting a custom domain name, whatever provider you choose. Cloudflare sells domains at cost. Get a not-embarrasing .com of your own, and then you can move email providers in future without losing continuity. Proton allows exporting .eml files, which you can then import into your next provider. Or just keep in cold storage and declare email bankruptcy. Once you have a custom domain, you can use unique emails for all your services by setting up a catchall address. This will at least impede credential stuffing attacks, and let you know who sold/leaked your address if you do get spam.
I personally left Proton a month or so ago after the last bit of drama, in part out of principle, but also because their offering is just really expensive for my use case: I just want email, on a budget, with reasonable privacy. Plus I was tired of not having IMAP support and being locked into their clients. Moved to a Zoho business account (for now) and have been happy for the $12/yr. I already had a domain name, but they typically run <$20/year too.
Would I need to do anything with the custom domain beyond registering it for this to work with an email provider?
Because this sounds like a great migration plan: set up a custom domain, add it to protonmail, update emails, export data, and then switch providers.
I’m just a bit clueless on the whole setting up a custom domain part.
You don't have to do anything else with the domain, it'll work fine for email only.
You could add it to Proton, take your time to migrate all your accounts, then dip. Or you could just go straight to a new provider with the domain, and take your time transitioning accounts to the custom domain over time that way. Assuming Proton's free offering is sufficient, you can always keep it around and set up forwarding to your custom domain.
Regarding domain name setup itself, Proton should provide steps for how to do it correctly, but I found them to be a bit fiddly (might have improved, this was a few years ago) - when I moved to Zoho I found it really easier. If you're using Cloudflare for the domain registration, Zoho can basically do it all automatically (click a few links link and accept the proposed changes).
Thanks! I registered a domain with cloudflare and that was easy enough. I’ll read up on some alternative providers and see how this all shakes out.
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At least they are still on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/proton.me
But a true fediverse presence would be better
Bluesky is not much better than X despite it claiming to
It's... better in the sense that you don't have right wing weirdos all over the place. But technically? Organizationally? Feels like we're on track to replay the same exact shit over again. It feels like people just aren't learning the lessons they should from the Twitter takeover.
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Ugh, I use proton for VPN and email. Any suggestions for decent VPN at this point?
I've used Mullvad for a couple of years now and they're great.
Sadly, mullvad doesn't rotate their IPs so they often get blocked and detected. You're kicked off many websites and services
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Honest, stupid question: Why exactly is this such a big deal to so many of you? (I don't use Mastodon.)
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