no-frills, very plain basic e-mail

Tech, TV, Mobile, Internet and Geek Corner
1
I know someone who would like to learn how to use e-mail, but who has very, very little electronic/internet/gadget knowledge.

He would like to be able to write a mail, send it, and to open, read and reply to mails he receives. That's all. Really all. Okay, maybe he would later like to go back and re-read them.

His problem, so far, when trying to learn to do this, has been that whichever service he tries quickly offers him options he has never heard of (online shopping, cloud storage, premium membership, etc.) and which he does not want to and, as he says, does not have the time to learn about. Moreover, he gets frustrated when these options suddenly appear on his screen out of nowhere, as he says, and he can't find his way back to his inbox.

His ideal, he says, is a mail service which doesn't even offer varying fonts (he doensn't know that word but can point to "all those frills" on the screen) an he doesn't want to be invited to use any of "those silly smilies and all their cousins I can't even distinguish from one another".

This man is intelligent, engaged, alert and very, very busy with a number of social engagements. Somehow, he just missed the boat when it was first setting sail, and trying to start now is frustrating.

If anyone could recommend a no-frills, minimalist mail service, or alternatively please explain how to reduce hotmail, gmx, or similar to the basics, I'd be most grateful. Thank you.

2
Who is his interline service provider? Many of these offer e-mail ... as part of their basic package.

3
If you have access to his pc why not install thunderbird ?

4
He does not have any internet or even a pc of his own. He would logging on on other people's devices. Therefore, he doesn't have any basic subscription to anything.

5
Personally I'd just set him up with Gmail., and then spend a few minutes explaining the basics. (which is al he needs)

6
What he said

7

If you don't know what you're doing, using a random device to log in your email-account is the worst thing to do.

Refurb 2017 iPads are 269 CHF:

https://www.apple.com/ch-de/shop/bro...cialdeals/ipad

Then, he could sign up to an ISP that offers something like Zimbra as mail-solution. It has a very clean interface and even offers a simplified HTML-only interface (no HTML5).

Most likely, he'll also need his own .ch domain.

8
+1 for Gmail. Made one for my mum which she still never uses, but I think its way easier than others as it has a pretty good phishing/spam filter that sorts out the junk elderly people should not get confused by...

9
Just din’t Forget to tell him that Google will read every word and use the data to track him. Something like thunderbird and an inexpensive isp would be my choice.

Remember if it is free, you are the product.

10
Protonmail

Decoupling Google dependence is a good thing

11
Client side encryption is a hell for somebody with hardly any knowledge who just occasionally checks/uses mail at other peoples computer (thus highly likely different devices)

12
For users & recipients, there is virtually no difference with any other client. User merely has two step password

I'd say the tracking, ad analytics etc. is far more a hell but that's me

13
He probably doesn't care.

Soon enough, he'll be signed up to FB, IG, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, Skype, Spotify and a dozen special-interest dating sites.

14
Older people react amazingly well to iphone/ipads. I speak from experience with 80+ year olds who have completely mastered reading and responding to emails using the smart devices, something they could not have done with normal pc or laptops.

15
Thanks to everyone who has contributed here.

Did you set it up for them? What, exactly? Did you teach them? Thanks.

16
I also recommend suggesting to buy any phone or tablet for mail use. The build in email clients are far better than any web based service and the look & feel hardly ever change. I donated my old windows phone to some retired man and he use the email since then, only from the phone.

I think that protonmail is actually quite easy to use whether from the dedicated mobile app or from the web. It may be worth try for any first-time email user.

17
Thanks for this. If anyone currently has an old, unused phone to donate, in this way, please, I'd very gladly pass it on. Thanks.

18
For each of the 4, we set up apple ids and gmail accounts which we connected to the inbuilt app in iphone/ipad and showed them the basics of how to read mails, respond, write new emails and attach images. We also showed them how to use google. For the ones who have iphones, we set up whatsapp and showed them the basics. Soon they figured out whatsapp is fun and easier to send pictures etc. and by now both sets of parents are hooked to whatsapp and the whatsapp calls. One security measure we drilled in to them is never to respond to any phishing emails. if they have any emergency problem, they approach their local electrical goods/phone shop and mostly these people are able to help them out. Each of them started with our old devices and that has worked perfectly for them. In fact I will probably now get a refurbished iphone for one in addition to the exising ipad.

19
Even if you know what you are doing, entering your creds on a random device is still a bad idea. You have no idea if the device has already been compromised / running malware or having its network traffic intercepted.

Refurb iPad isn't a bad idea, although I personalty wouldn't trust a second hand mobile device. For basic email use and web browsing a new Chromebook I think is a good and affordable alternative, which would pair well with a Gmail account.

20
I would definitely go with a refurbished iPad + me.com/icloud.com free account.

Once you got that, you can simply log in from everywhere simply going on iCloud.com