Fair point - I meant free in the sense that the protocol is open. I didn’t mean that it’s not under threat.
replyYou seem to miss the point WHY customers go there. I, for one, switched when I realized Google filters spam effectively.
replyThat WHY seems to only address a very small slice of the market. Some other WHYs I've encountered
reply- it was a way to outsource the mail server administration and already free in our corporate package
Which is pretty much all I have from the corporate side. On the personal or small business side its most often
- I don't really care that much about running my own stuff
- I needed a personal email address
All these are valid reasons/motivations but none explicitly argue that email messaging should become proprietary.