[olug] Google changes to free

[Dan Linder]

Not sure who has heard about the plan, but Google is changing the terms of
the free G-Suite service this year:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/01/google-tells-free-g-suite-users-pay-up-or-lose-your-account/

I signed up for it near the beginning - it's how I host the Linder.org
email and use GMail for the actual mail processing.

Over the years I've set up a handful of emails on this for my wife, kids,
and parents, and only used the Google docs/spreadsheet/etc. lightly.  If
nothing happens with the change, I'll now have a $42/month bill for their
services - it's not "break the bank" level, but still, $500/year is pretty
hard to get past the family financial controller (e.g. wife).

We're an Android family, and all of our devices are registered with our @
linder.org email.  They haven't said what happens to our devices and
purchases if we let the @linder.org link with Google expire.

So I have two comments for the greater OLUG group:
1: If you're concerned, please take some time to fill out their survey
about this:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeY9yv4WGCHvOiJN4tgt3SdsunaVBoT_6rN8un9Q4_lzBKGeA/viewform
*(It's only one question, so reading an "it'll take you X minutes" comment
takes longer than filling it out...)*

2: I've been looking a bit at other email providers (Microsoft O365,
ProtonMail, etc).  Transferring might be a pain, but I'm willing to change
to another hosted provider if I'm being forced to by Google anyway.  And
there are enough options available now (vs 15 years ago) that I can be a
bit more selective.  Does anyone have any suggestions on where they might
have a domain hosted that has a decent email web experience (mail filters,
good spam filtering, etc)?

Thoughts?
Dan

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