I have used sendmail in the past now using postfix. Hardly get any
spam either. Don't think I would ever use gmail (I do have a google
account though for my android phone)
I am in two minds, I have told people to just use gmail as it is
simple for non tech people and gets them away from MS products and
ISP tied email addresses.
But I do prefer having my own email server for my email.
And hosting your own is absolutely a valid choice - I think I didn't make my views entirely clear in my previous post. If your address is relatively unknown as many personal ones are, the spam issue shouldn't be overwhelming, and it is a lot of fun to host and play around with email and domains. Linux users do tend to be curious tinkerers and there's no better way to learn something than by doing.
Curious about one thing in your email though - you consider Google "better" than Microsoft in some way?
I'm not sure I do any more. MS have scaled back their evilness in some ways, and Google have increased theirs significantly.
Concur about ISP emails though. Always a bad idea to tie your essential accounts to a single service supplier when you don't need to. (And again, from experience. I lost access to a domain and some accounts some years ago because I'd used a btinternet address from our first ISP)
