> Greetings
>
> Started way back when when I got to the web full-time using webmail.
> Haven't ever setup an email system and AIUI it is a system - - - there are
> a lot of parts that have to work together to have everything working well.
>
> A mentor, now deceased, recommended using Claws but even that's not all
> that's needed for an email system. So - - - I'm looking for recommendations
> on what and how to setup an email system. The why you're using what you are
> is vitally important for me (as are my security and privacy).

Hi

I am assuming you are asking how to set up your own complete
mail infrastructure.

If so: Congratulations - I think you are doing the *right* thing.
Not only for yourself, but for the internet as a whole. The
concentration of email servers under the control of a
few big corporations is a singularly bad thing.

The core of internet email is the SMTP server or MTA.
There are a number of implementations including postfix,
sendmail, exim and qmail - amongst others. I think the
most important step in hosting your own email infrastructure
is to start understanding one of them - installing one of
them on a spare computer (or container, or hosted system) would
be a good start. If you don't know which MTA to pick, I'd
say try postfix or exim (whatever your distribution defaults
to). And if you want to get going quickly, enable local delivery with
a mail client you can run via ssh such as alpine, mutt or one
of several emacs extensions (the latter only if you use emacs).

There are other parts to hosting your own email (DNS,
spam mitigation, getting mail to your remote email client, dealing
with difficult remote servers). Each of these is its own topic.
These topics can be large, but they can be understood - do
not believe the naysayers who claim it is all too complex.
They might value convenience over liberty, but not everybody
has to be that shortsighted.

regards

marc