Recommended email hosting options ================================= This document provides recommendations for email hosting setups suitable for kernel maintainers, especially given the increasing limitations of consumer email providers like Gmail and Outlook. Own domain with Fastmail ------------------------ The preferred setup is to use your own domain with Fastmail. This is not a free option, but costs approximately 100 USD per year with a .net domain. **Advantages:** - You own your domain and address; if Fastmail stops being suitable in the future, your identity is not tied to them and you can migrate to another hosting service - You can purchase your domain through Fastmail itself, and it will be preconfigured correctly for immediate use (you can still transfer it to a different registrar if you wish); .net domains are cheapest at approximately 30 USD per year - You can send plaintext email through their webmail service (see https://useplaintext.email/#fastmail) - Their mobile app supports sending plaintext email - Full SMTP and IMAP support for use with any mail client - Can be configured to send kernel.org mail through our servers, allowing direct use of your kernel.org alias - JMAP support is available; lei/korgalore support uploading messages to your inbox with JMAP, which is faster and more reliable than Gmail or IMAP **Disadvantages:** - Fastmail is an Australian company with servers in the US - Their server stack is largely proprietary, though they open-source parts of their software linux.dev hosting ----------------- The Linux Foundation offers linux.dev mailbox hosting for anyone listed in the MAINTAINERS file, providing a first.last@linux.dev address. The provider is Migadu, and LF pays an annual fee to offer this service at no cost to maintainers. See :doc:`linuxdev` for more information on applying for an account. **Advantages:** - Available to any maintainer at no cost - Uses free software services (Postfix, Dovecot) - Can send plaintext email through webmail - Standard IMAP/SMTP that work well with mobile apps (e.g., FairEmail) - Servers are located in Switzerland **Disadvantages:** - Naming convention is enforced (first.last@linux.dev) to avoid collisions - Owned by LF; your inbox can be accessed by the LF admin team - You may encounter throttling issues with large mail volumes - Outgoing nodes occasionally end up on blocklists, causing bounces Self-hosted with kernel.org address ----------------------------------- You can use your kernel.org alias with your own mail server. The server needs a DNS entry and must accept incoming connections on port 25 for forwarding. You can self-host a Nextcloud instance, for example, and use the bundled webmail and IMAP access for your mail. For outgoing mail, you can use kernel.org SMTP servers. See :doc:`mail` for information on configuring your kernel.org mail settings. **Advantages:** - You own everything and nobody else has access to your email - Completely free (excluding time spent on setup and maintenance) - No blocklist concerns when sending via smtp.kernel.org **Disadvantages:** - You are responsible for running your own infrastructure Gmail/Outlook with korgalore ---------------------------- The korgalore tool works well for mailing list subscriptions. If you use Gmail only as a mail storage backend while using a client like mutt/neomutt/Thunderbird to read and send email, you can continue to use Gmail along with your kernel.org alias. See :doc:`korgalore` for more information. **Advantages:** - Use the Gmail/Outlook frontend for AI integrations or other features to read and organize mail **Disadvantages:** - Cannot send plaintext email via mobile apps - Relies on continued IMAP and SMTP availability from these providers