[Evolution] Google's blockage of Evolution with Gmail, and Web Presence of Evolution

[Nick Pontillo <nicholas00pontillo gmail com>]

Hey all, there are two things I'd like to propose/bring to attention.

First of all, Google is blocking Evolution from working with Gmail due
to this: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255?hl=en

This page might also be relevant:
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6009563

Apparently this is a problem for a lot of desktop mail applications. I
don't really know much about this, but it is explained here:
http://mbeiley.blogspot.com/2014/09/google-less-secure-apps-explained.html

Now I've read some other things on the Internet that say this does
nothing for security, because you've already given the "less secure app"
your login credentials anyway when Google blocks it. But regardless of
whether what Google is doing is good or not, or anticompetitive or not,
we need to deal with this.

There are three options here. One is Evolution starts using 0auth2, and
is therefore not blocked when it tries to login to Gmail. A second
option is to tell the user how to connect their Evolution to their Gmail
right in the setup wizard, without them having to look for the
workaround online like I did (while you're at it, you might as well tell
them to enable POP/IMAP too, since that also needs to be done). The
third option is to do nothing, and essentially alienate every Gmail user
who doesn't have the patience to figure out where to go in the Google
settings to "allow less secure apps".

So my question is, would it be feasible for Evolution to start using
0auth2, so that it is no longer blocked by Google? I believe Thunderbird
already does this by the way, since I had no problem integrating my
Gmail account with it.

If it is not feasible, then I would suggest option 2, which is to give
the user more instruction in the very beginning for how to get around
this. Specifically, I think the setup wizard when you run Evolution for
the first time should say something along the lines of "if you would
like to connect a Gmail account, go to
https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps and enable less
secure apps. Then log in to gmail with a web browser, go to settings, go
to 'forwarding and pop/imap', and enable pop or imap."

And this brings me to the other thing I want to talk about, which is
that in order to give feedback about this I had to sign up for this
mailing list and send out an email. I think there is a good opportunity
for Evolution to improve its user-friendliness by having a forum on the
web of some sort.

*Forums are better than IRC and mailing lists because people don't have
to sign up to look at them*, therefore if someone is having a problem
they can look on the forum for solutions. Right now there is no central
place on the web where people can go to look for help and tips with
Evolution - unless they set up IRC, sign up to the mailing list, or to
the Gnome wiki. There are threads *about* Evolution in other tech
forums, but there is no Evolution forum.

This does not even require any money, hardware, or investment from
Gnome. All it would take is for someone to make a subreddit called
"/r/evolutionmail" and then link to that subreddit in the Evolution
manual, gnome wiki page, and setup wizard. Maybe advertise it a bit on
Linux blogs/forums on the same day it's created. And it could even link
to all the other Evolution stuff like this:
https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evolution/ and this:
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/evolution-list

So in short:

1: In light of Google's policy, do something to make it easier to
connect Gmail accounts with Evolution.
2: Have a public forum where people can ask for help and provide
assistance anonymously, but in public so it's easy for anyone to see,
and link this reciprocally to all the other Evolution web presence. I
will create a subreddit myself if there is general agreement that it is
a good idea. I am open to having my mind changed though.

I will end this by saying thank you and happy new year to all open
source developers and contributors. Nice email client! :)