jstayton

Thanks! It's kind of crazy to think that we have platforms now where that's possible. Suri really only works because of that.

That was exactly the inspiration, in fact. I've integrated Auth0 a few times and enjoyed the ability to drop down into code to tailor logic precisely to my needs.

> They do provide a service.

That's true. I should have worded it differently. They're trying to attract developers to build apps for their platform, rather than launching them as a service (i.e., SaaS).

For most people considering Sandstorm, Google is probably the last place they'd feel comfortable sharing their data.

I want to push back a bit on this statement:

> Or can one random person, working in their spare time, build just the right app and reach millions of people?

I agree that it's very difficult for one person; however, to win doesn't always need to be defined as becoming the most popular, or reaching millions of people. What if it's 1,000 people paying $10/month? That is possible for one person going the service-oriented route.

This isn't a nitpick about Sandstorm per se — I do love what they're doing — and I understand they're making this argument because what they do isn't a service. But I do think it's possible to find diversity/decentralization in small, independent service-oriented companies that don't care about being popular on the scale of Facebook or Google.

Looks good as a self-hosted option.

This is an interesting/creative idea. I've heard about people doing something similar with Twitter and Facebook. While they want you to keep everything forever, it's actually pretty easy to use them more ephemerally.

Their web UI is extremely snappy. Definitely on par with Gmail's web UI, if not faster.

I don't have tons of messages in FastMail — so take that into consideration — but their web UI search seems very quick as well.

I haven't used their mobile app, so I can't speak to that.

Gmail => FastMail

Calendar/Contacts => Apple iCloud

Drive => SpiderOakONE

Chrome => Firefox

Search => DuckDuckGo

Maps => Apple Maps

Photos => Store locally (iPhoto & Lightroom)

Docs => Apple iCloud

Apple may seem like the odd one out, but I trust them quite a bit seeing how they've fought for privacy over the last few years. I also use all Apple devices, so the convenience is also unparalleled.

Yeah, I think that's a fair point, and can certainly be a logical step toward increased privacy.