Yeah that’s right. For a whopping one time purchase of 250$, you get a lifetime license for a @linux.com domain as an email alias/forwarding only. You cannot send emails from this. You can contact support to check if the alias you want is available too.
Imagine this on your CV. It is the ultimate flex.


Properly set up, it’s more than a vanity project - it’s an eternal email address.
Because, properly set up, you can also send mail from that address (or at least that’s how it appears to recipients).
Another email provider fucks you over? NP, just point your redirecting address somewhere else.
As someone who’s been using a similar service for over a decade, the end user and both providers need to set the thing up properly. Thankfully mine is dedicated.
So,
you should check with linux.com (?) how serious they are about it(edit: according to the screenshot above, not very), if you want to use this seriously.I do this with @duck.com except it’s free, strips trackers where possible, and supports generating any number of alias addresses that can be disabled. For those who don’t want to spend $250 but still want forwarding security
+1 for @duck.com
Also very entertaining to see people react when you give them the email domain.
How would you go about doing this? Getting the @linux.com domain to forward incoming email from a specific address somehow?
The from field in an email is something that the sender sets, and they don’t have to set it to anything in particular. Unless your email client stops you (which is pretty common these days) you can just enter a made up address, another address that you’d rather receive replies through, or someone else’s address. It’s one of the reasons why phishing emails work - there’s nothing stopping a scammer impersonating anyone they want to.
Interesting, I had no idea!
Thank you!
I’m an old man, but I also remember the reply-to header as option if your setup precludes you changing the from address header.
The “From” part is configurable per specification, it’s called identities. Good email clients will have config options for that.
But there’s an extra part that the server needs to provide so that Google doesn’t think you’re doing something “nefarious” (read: using email as it’s intended to be used but not as Google wants it to be used).
Gmail is one of the most, if not the most, annoying recipients to avoid the spam category. My ISP lists their non-business IPs on Spamhaus PBL because they’ve monetised having a static IP and decided email servers aren’t for residents. (But I’ve snoozed – they haven’t been the highest rated ISP for years and the new highest, Zen, is much better than EE)
Interesting, I had no idea!
Thank you!