(apologies in advance if this isn’t the right community for this question)
I’ve been flirting with Linux on and off for about 15 years and I think I’m ready to make the switch mostly full-time. I use a laptop for work and have a Microsoft 365 plan with email and such. I need to replace that with something Linux-friendly and would much prefer something that works with a desktop email client. Easy syncing of email, contacts and calendar to Android is a must.
Proton seems like it might be a good option but the privacy features aren’t a huge selling point for me so I’m open to other options!
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Lol wut. Use Thunderbird. We rolled that out to everyone at work.
I think you may have misunderstood my question. I’m not asking which desktop client I should use.
I know its not what you asked, however you can use Thunderbird with Office 365 in the mean time. Same with Evolution.
I’ve been on Linux desktop (Mint) for over a decade now. My company uses O365 for email, as did the organization before them.
I use Thunderbird with several add-ons: Mailbox Alert, Owl for Exchange (paid), Provider for Exchange ActiveSync, and TbSync. I honestly couldn’t tell you which one or ones I find most useful - it’s been so long since I’ve installed them, I don’t remember which addon provides which functionality. My most recent install was Owl, for calendaring and because things got a wee bit fucky with O365 servers for a week or two last year. I have Thunderbird set to collect addresses when I reply to users. You can have it query AD for contacts, I think, but it tends to be a wee bit slow.
On my Android phone, I use the default Google Calendar app, and the Gmail app to query O365.
The problem here is the way in which Exchange, and Microsoft, do things with what should be Interopobile. Instead there’s additions and extension only available if you’re using exchange or Microsoft products. It’s absolutely intentional to make you frustrated at what the alternatives are and how they don’t work,. Buy exchange and it’ll be fixed.
So, you need a groupware/email provider and app recommendations?
Thunderbird will likely be the most recommended client as it does all 3 of the things you need. So, it gets points for being easy. And you can try it out on Windows before to see if you like it.
There are other OK clients. Overall I am not a big fan of Thunderbird or most of the other options. I settled for Claws, but it is not for everyone.
Proton is highly recommended, along with Disroot and Tutanota and Mailbox and many others.
As for Android syncing, it is all pretty easy. I use Mailbox and on my Android FairEmail, Davx5, Icsx5, and Etar to keep everything synced.
Could you elaborate a little on the syncing please, it doesn’t sound “all pretty easy” to me :). You are mentioning 3 apps, why do you need all of them?
Depends on the protocols used.
Mailbox uses CalDAV and CardDAV. If I want the Android calendar to sync my contacts, I need Davx5 to speak to the server. Same goes for Calendars. The stock calendar app works, but I just prefer Etar. Anyway…
FairEmail gets the email. Easy to setup.
Davx5 gets the rest. Just put in the username and password. Done.
Icsx5 is the same as Davx5, but for iCal things. So, I subscribe to my partner’s public calendar, my work calendars, etc.
I wouldn’t classify it as “not easy” but rather jumping a few extra hurdles. I think Proton has an app that takes care of this… Not sure.
Switching email providers is not a frictionless process. It caused a lot of stress for me. And my laptop, well, I use Claws for email and 3 other command line applications to get my calendars and contacts synced. Bit of a pain, but it works.
Thank you very much, it’s more clear to me now.
Maybe check out Infomaniak, there’s also a cloud drive option and integration of onlyoffice desktop editors.
Wow this seems like a far better deal than Proton, Tutanota etc. Do you use their service?
I do. Only on Android though. I’m not sure how well the cloud drive integrates with Linux DEs.
How is the deliverability? Do you have any issues with it going to people’s spam folder?
I haven’t had any issues yet with my @etik.com address. However, I only use it privately, not for business.
In my opinion, Tutanota https://tutanota.com/ is a better choice than Proton, there are apps for Linux, Windows, macOS, Android iPhone, working nicely together.
They would be on my list if they offered an import service, without which their offering is useless to me… I’d lose years of work emails.
Fastmail is well-regarded, although they are hosted in Australia (which has some really dumb privacy laws). I use them. There’s an import tool.
If you are privacy paranoid, mailfence is hosted in Belgium, which is a brick wall when it comes to privacy and warrants - likely the best jurisdiction in the world in this regard. The interface is dated.
Use your SSON credentials on https://office.microsoft.com to have all the office products in a web variant. Those are pretty good actually.
Try thunderbird
I love Thunderbird, but I wouldn’t recommend it for Microsoft 365. You can add the mail account via IMAP (if you turn off Security Defaults), but I don’t believe there’s a way to get Microsoft’s contacts and calendars to sync up, since they don’t support CardDAV or CalDAV.
It doesn’t support syncing contacts and calendars out of the box, but there are plugins that will let you sync both. I used Thunderbird successfully with MS365 in 2019-2020.
