Residential Service Provider - because the NBN does what your previous
ISP and telephone provider did.
MSP is Mail Service Provider.
> Maybe I should have my email accounts at Protonmail. Any thoughts on
> them?
>
If you're freaked about the need for your email to be "secure" then
they're probably no more or less reliable that any other. They will all
roll over if the correctly worded court-order lands in the office.
(Proton mail is an MSP, as are Google and Hotmail/
live.com &c.)
> I'd hoped 'alpine' would be an all-in-one affair I could use in a CLI
> environment, and as far as using 'getmail' or any of those utilities to
> deal with mail, I clearly have a heap of learning to do. BTW: advice
> about where to do that would be appreciated.
>
> For context: I'm a long term MacOS user, and having toyed with Linux
> for some time, am looking to take it seriously and abandon the Apple
> Universe if-and-wherever possible.
>
I don't think you are an Alpine user.
Some history: Pine was/is an email client (Mail User Agent, MUA)
developed back in the days (1992) when email systems were all internal
and when something went wrong you wandered down/up stairs to where the
people managing your servers sat and asked what was going on.
Alpine is a continuation of Pine, it was supposed to be easier to use
than Pine, but, IMNSHO it's just as opaque. (Note: I fiddle with alpine
from time to time, but there are problems getting it to play nicely with
my Panda-IMAP changes - see, that's the sort of stuff that happens when
you get into weird bollocks like alpine - so I don't use it in anger.)
Things like Alpine work best in a fully controlled environment, where
you run your own mail-server and know just what every little bit and
byte is doing, if you *know* how email works, it'd be fine.
If you have some overwhelming need to run a CLI environment - such as
being on the end of a noisy telephone line - then it might even be
necessary, but it certainly can be a rod for your back.
(Oh, I forgot the other big reason for wanting a CLI MUA, being blind.
I don't know what BCA or VisionAustralia are recommending these days,
back in 1980's I did some stuff using DEC hardware to make things easier
for people, but I've not paid much attention since.)
If you're moving to Linux, just use the GUI stuff, it all tends to work
just fine and is much more likely to be supported by /any/ RSP.
Although I've not had any problems with TPG support when I say UNIX or
Linux, it usually means they jump to the end of the script and bounce me
straight up a level!
I use Thunderbird on Solaris, Linux, and Windows, it just works, and I
don't have to think too hard about what I am doing. (I use LookOut! in
my day job, that's the problem with having to earn a living!!)
But I've made my living as a programmer and administrator since the days
of 300bps acoustic couplers and UUCP-maps, I'm all for making my life
easier.