Yes! "The open source counterpart of Google Apps" indeed. The thing that motivated me to do this in the first place was observing that we have whole open source desktop environments containing just about everything many of us need on a day-to-day basis, but in "The Cloud" open source options seem totally lacking. I use gmail. What else can I use? There are many open source web mail clients but to use them I need to run my own server, which is too much friction for me.
But if I could just install an e-mail client on Sandstorm with a couple clicks... I'd totally do that.
I was just thinking today about how cool it would be if I could easily deploy an email service that was entirely under my control. I've allowed MS and Google full access to my email only because I don't know how to setup an email server with appropriate spam filtering and reliable security. I have my own RSS aggregation server and I don't ever have to worry about it going away as a service.
Brian K. Vaughan's The Private Eye [1] was on my mind when I was thinking about an individual being entirely in control of all their data without compromising on functionality or usability.
But if I could just install an e-mail client on Sandstorm with a couple clicks... I'd totally do that.