Users will keep their exisiting (sic) email addresses on this service, and would get it free for the first year. After that, there will be options of paying for a service, or an ad-based free service after that.
So, what’s the problem, exactly? Just take the ad-based free service. Gmail, Yahoo, etc. are ad-based free services too. Nobody is forcing them to change anything.
People who use the default email their ISP gives them don’t like change. The new service will probably have a different login screen and that’s going to upset aunty Ethel and uncle ron. And then a different colour background. It’s the worst thing that anyone could ever do to them
I can understand the pain, though. Moving accounts to a new email is not a fun process. Especially if someone has an email for years, decades even, that’s a lot of stuff that could be registered with that email. And trying to save emails isn’t necessarily straightforward. Migration, if it’s even available, isn’t foolproof or easy, either.
While I’ve grown up with the Internet, I think I’ve only changed my main email like 3 times over ~30yrs. The last time I did it was over a decade ago, to Gmail from my family’s then ISP-based email. I think I’m way overdue to do it again, at least moving my important accounts like banking and government stuff to a new email address, but it’s just so time consuming.
And I say all this as a tech person. I work in IT. For someone who’s not particularly tech savvy, forget about it.
I’m about the same. Last switch was yahoo to Gmail and now I’m in the process of switching from Gmail to Proton Mail. The most difficult part was the mental switch - which email you start giving out when you sign up. Second was migrating services. I made it a point for a while each time I logged into something knew I would switch the primary email. Its been a long process!
Anyone who had a bookmark set to their webmail years ago will need a younger person to fix it. Same with anyone who had Outlook, Thunderbird, whatever configured for them will have to start using webmail. If someone doesn’t have younger family in the area they will be fucked. My own mother gets thrown way off by the slightest changes.
I’m not apologizing for boomers never investing in actually learning how computers work (for some, they’ve had decades of time). Just illustrating some of the hurdles.
My father was a mechanical engineer with fucking patents. I’m convinced he could have learned much more than he did. He just relinquished any notion that he could and that then played out. How many times did I tell him to click on the Apple menu only to have him ask (yet again), “What’s that?”
i am not a boomer and i am also pissed when firefox upgrade decides to unilaterally change the installed theme to something that looks like shit and i can’t find the old one. so i kinda do understand aunty ethel.
Err…
So, what’s the problem, exactly? Just take the ad-based free service. Gmail, Yahoo, etc. are ad-based free services too. Nobody is forcing them to change anything.
People who use the default email their ISP gives them don’t like change. The new service will probably have a different login screen and that’s going to upset aunty Ethel and uncle ron. And then a different colour background. It’s the worst thing that anyone could ever do to them
I can understand the pain, though. Moving accounts to a new email is not a fun process. Especially if someone has an email for years, decades even, that’s a lot of stuff that could be registered with that email. And trying to save emails isn’t necessarily straightforward. Migration, if it’s even available, isn’t foolproof or easy, either.
While I’ve grown up with the Internet, I think I’ve only changed my main email like 3 times over ~30yrs. The last time I did it was over a decade ago, to Gmail from my family’s then ISP-based email. I think I’m way overdue to do it again, at least moving my important accounts like banking and government stuff to a new email address, but it’s just so time consuming.
And I say all this as a tech person. I work in IT. For someone who’s not particularly tech savvy, forget about it.
I’m about the same. Last switch was yahoo to Gmail and now I’m in the process of switching from Gmail to Proton Mail. The most difficult part was the mental switch - which email you start giving out when you sign up. Second was migrating services. I made it a point for a while each time I logged into something knew I would switch the primary email. Its been a long process!
Anyone who had a bookmark set to their webmail years ago will need a younger person to fix it. Same with anyone who had Outlook, Thunderbird, whatever configured for them will have to start using webmail. If someone doesn’t have younger family in the area they will be fucked. My own mother gets thrown way off by the slightest changes.
I’m not apologizing for boomers never investing in actually learning how computers work (for some, they’ve had decades of time). Just illustrating some of the hurdles.
My father was a mechanical engineer with fucking patents. I’m convinced he could have learned much more than he did. He just relinquished any notion that he could and that then played out. How many times did I tell him to click on the Apple menu only to have him ask (yet again), “What’s that?”
i am not a boomer and i am also pissed when firefox upgrade decides to unilaterally change the installed theme to something that looks like shit and i can’t find the old one. so i kinda do understand aunty ethel.