Back when I was using Apple I paid for an @mac.com address. I could get used to paying for email again, though I may be in the minority there. Although being a paid product didn't stop Apple from killing it.
> Although being a paid product didn't stop Apple from killing it.
?
Email to whoever@mac.com is still working as far as I know, and I send emails to a couple of people who still use mac.com addresses all the time (whoever@icloud.com also works).
This was the .Mac subscription. Poking around the history, it looks like I misunderstood Apple's move at the time. When they discontinued .Mac they also seem to have switched to the me.com domain. My impression at the time from whatever messaging they sent out to subscribers was "no more mac.com email" so that's when I switched to Gmail.
I don't mind paying for e-mail personally. There's a lot of odds and ends stuff you have to deal with operationally if you self-host, and most of the places that charge you don't display ads.
