My days of using Linux as my main system may be coming to an end

[fox]

Kind of sad, and it has nothing to do with the capability of my 2019 iMac nor my interest in Linux. It's more that my university has made it more and more difficult to use it as my main machine. That's because it now refuses to connect Thunderbird to my Trent email account. Previously, I was using a paid Thunderbird add on called Owl to connect. But a few months ago, it wouldn't connect without a security code that I get on my phone, and now it won't connect altogether. I contacted Trent IT to ask them to make an exception, and they refused. Trent came under the spell of Microsoft about 10 or 15 years ago, and everything is now MS with them. I am able to connect MS Outlook (Mac or PC) to my mail account directly, so it is now easier to run a Mac than Linux. Also, they have now removed free local Microsoft Office 365 as a perk to faculty and staff, but that doesn't affect my using Linux because I can run Office 2010 via Crossover. I have tried several other mail programs on Ubuntu to gain access to my Trent account to no avail. Maybe my best answer is to stop using my Trent account, but so many people have my contact as that account and it would be difficult to notify everyone currently using my Trent mail account to contact me elsewhere. I'm still thinking this out and would welcome suggestions.

[ssfc72]

What does the Owl add on to Thunderbird do, to enable the email to connect to the Trent email system?
Hopefully Owl will massage their add on, so that it will again connect with the Trent email.

[fox]

I don't actually know. I thought it had to do with OAuth, but now I don't. I'm not entirely sure whether the problem is Microsoft or Trent, but I think it's Trent. I have seen instructions on other university websites on how to connect to their server with Thunderbird, and they don't work on Trent. I think it's a security thing. It does have something to do with Microsoft Exchange. I can access it with MS Outlook and Apple Mail. Mail set it up as an exchange account.

[buster]

The major parts of the Internet do seem to be controlled by fewer and fewer entities, and I doubt the trend will change. Money is being concentrated into fewer and fewer hands as well.

Soooo... can yet set up a Linux World from home on a separate computer, send an email through your Trent account to non business and non university people suggesting they use your new Google email address to contact you, but leave banks and gov't offices with the Trent account, as well as other academics?

This could be done on one laptop if you still dual boot. This would be convenient when traveling.

All this is a pain in the ass, and I can gladly say I'm happy it's you faced with this problem rather than me.

(I did get a deal with Bell, but I also stay because of my Sympatico Mail account for everything important, which has been altered for new customers. They do not get a mail account any more.)