[QUESTION] Is the project dead?

[ner00]

There hasn't been any commit or PR merge in 2025, not the end of the world since there is some stability to the current version, but I thought I'd ask: is snappymail getting archived?

[luluwebmaster]

Hello !

Great question, I have the same..

[codiflow]

Seems like the main contributor is inactive since November 2024

[ner00]

There was actually activity in December, it's probably not on that timeline because they were third-party merges instead of own merges. But his public Github stopped December 10th.

[mmallejac]

I hope Maarten will be back soon, but in case not, how about discussing here possible alternatives ?

From what I've seen at this point, Nextcloud official mail app has done lot of progress, but is still lacking a decent signature since no html code can be added. One could image to set up an SMTP proxy to add signature to outgoing emails : OpenSMTP, MailCleaner or MailScanner are FOSS software that could do the job.

Nextcloud also now hosts the RoundCube project, but it is my understanding that this is not comparable to Snappymail.

Any other ideas ?

[codiflow]

I don't think alternatives are really helpful as switching software always means a lot of changes in peoples workflow and therefore will cause some kind of harm (also to SnappyMail as a project).

I think it would make sense to discuss possible future (co-)maintainers of a soft/hard fork, wouldn't it?

So keeping this project alive would make more sense than motivating people to switch to another solution.

Maybe we should also think about porting this project to a "neutral organisation" within GitHub or one of the alternative code hosting platforms as currently it is owned by Maarten itself. This would also contribute to a vibe of "keeping things alive" 😎

[mmallejac]

Your point makes sense, as long as there are technical skills and time available. Snappymail is quite a beast !

But for us, migrating "back" to the Nextcloud Mail has always been the plan since we consider that no one else than Nextcloud is ultimately able to produce a well-integrated mail client. Just a matter of time and priorities. So far they have made a lot of progress, and - except this mail signature issue - I do not see what else is missing compared to Snappy.

[codiflow]

I totally get your point and for NC users this might be a good solution in the mid-term 😎

I'm using standalone SnappyMail so switching the mail client would be possible but from my point of view it would make more sense to invest some energy in finding a (co-)maintainer or trying to keep things running as long as possible. 🙏

Let's see how strong the SnappyMail community is 💪

[randolf]

Although I very much prefer the co-maintainer idea, I do think it's way too early to be suggesting switching to a different solution. Does anyone know how to get in touch with Maarten or can check in on how things are going for him? I hope he's okay and it's just the case that he's taking a short break from things.

Switching to a different eMail client would be a major undertaking for me since my systems are currently a heavily customized Postfix/Dovecot on Debian solution that supports a wide variety of organizations, some with a variety of different needs. The technical part isn't so hard (and the switch from RainLoop was easy because SnappyMail worked well as a drop-in replacement) because SnappyMail uses IMAP4 and SMTP, but getting users to change over to something else is the hard part -- they often don't want to change, especially when things are working well (and many of my users like SnappyMail because, to them, the interface is similar to GMail but without all the complexity).

[peterkeist]

The main contributors homepage has not been on the net for at least one week (and https://snappymail.eu/ also). In the Internet Archive you can find an address: https://web.archive.org/web/20241209032457/https://mhxsolutions.nl/contact If someone is from Holland, can you check whether someone answers?

[codiflow]

The main contributors homepage has not been on the net for at least one week (and https://snappymail.eu/ also). In the Internet Archive you can find an address: https://web.archive.org/web/20241209032457/https://mhxsolutions.nl/contact If someone is from Holland, can you check whether someone answers?

I wrote him a message using my WhatsApp fake account – let's see if he answers 😉

[UltraBlackLinux]

check whether someone answers?

I don't think anyone should do this because it's quite invasive behavior. Snappymail is a free project, and maarten doesn't appear to have had much time to dedicate to this project in the past either way. Just wait and hope.

[codiflow]

He answered right back yesterday telling he will write about his current situation here as soon as possible.

So no worries – he's not lost 😎

[ner00]

I don't think anyone should do this because it's quite invasive behavior.

You might also be overthinking and overblowing what may otherwise be a perfect reaction.

Speaking for myself (although I know I'm not alone in sentiment), I'd message him just to know if he's alright, but since someone else took the initiative there's no point in me or anyone else doing the same, because then it could become actually invasive (ie multiple unknowns bothering him at the same time).

Keep in mind that nobody suggested alternative forms of contact until both SnappyMail's and his own business' webpages went dark, when we're no longer just ruminating about the future of the project or that Maarten had stopped working on the project as frequently as he did in the past.

Good news is he replied, also both websites are online again. Everyone has a personal life, I don't think any member here forgets that for a second. Maarten owes no explanations because he has no obligations towards us, but that doesn't stop us from worrying, even if that can be relatively perceived as an invasion of privacy.