[maratd]

This is unbelievably not true. Installing dovecot or similar is super easy. There are many options.

Unfortunately, setting things up to the point where your email isn't instantly tagged as SPAM by Google's, Yahoo's, and Microsoft's servers which handle the bulk of the email you want delivered ... is a monumental feat of engineering.

Frequently, they just mark it as SPAM when it doesn't come from one of the big boy's servers. What's the point of sending an email if the recipient will never have a chance to read it?

[gruuby]

Are you sure? I've been sending email from my workstations for years and never had an issue. Maybe if I'd let spammers relay through them for a day or two I'd get blocked. Even that would just be temporary. Let's see some proof that you need a big boy's server to successfully send email. The only real problem I can think of is that a lot of ISPs block 25 out.

[jiggy2011]

Set your PTR and SPF records and this isn't a problem unless you are unlucky enough to inherit an IP with a bad reputation or you actually send spam.

Would be a way to enforce a monopoly on email though.