I have Debian 7.7 and have just installed Icedove email client.
I want to create a free email address so I can have a new email account.

When I launch Icedove, I get a window saying 'Would you like a new email address?'
It then offers a search button for email addresses. Why? If I create an address it will need to be unique - so there's nothing for it to find.
Also, I input an email address I want and it seemed to be saying that the propietary host server (in this case gandi.net) wanted £4 ($6) for the account.

Can someone please say a little more about Icedove? Believe me, there is little to learn from Youtube and the internet.

If you already have an email account you can access it from icedove. I have both a yahoo & gmail account which are free but I only use gmail in my icedove setup.

Thank you. I wanted to create a new email account.

Since the software is hosted by gandi.net - does this mean I'll have to pay for a new account?
Is it possible to have a free email account with Icedove?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/new-email-address

please read the above.

You can also use Start mail or other paid secure email instead of gandi or the other one that Thunderbird/Icedove works with.

Yes, with gandi you have to pay,

1 members found this post helpful.

I see. Well, that's good to know. Thanks.
Unpaid, GNU licence, secure email is not so easy to get then.
We have to pay for freedom. I should've expected it!

If I understand what you're saying, you won't do this with an email client. You'd need to run an email server to create an email account. You usually get issued email addresses from your ISP or there is gmail from Google, also hotmail, Yahoo and other suppliers.

Setting up your own mailserver is probably a lot bigger deal, perhaps someone who has done this can advise if that's what you mean.
(Maybe it's not a big deal, I've had no reason to try it...yet!)

Play Bonny!

Thanks dude. I wanted just a simple email address with an email client.
I'm going to trawl the net to look for free and safe email sites.

Soadyhead just gave you a list of free email services, check them out.

Thunderbird uses an autoconfig database to auto-fill fields while configuring an existing account, after the mail address is provided. You can browse the autoconfig database here:

https://autoconfig.thunderbird.net/v1.1/

Many freemail providers are in there. Go to the website mentioned in <domain>, look for their terms of service, and create an account when you found a service which suits you.

Where's the link?

Thanks very much! It's good to know there are free services out there!