e-mail provider recommendations?

[Joshua Judson Rosen]

Dear GNHLUG,

A couple of (non-technical) friends of mine have expressed
a desire to move away from Google's services in response to
the latest publicised privacy/security gaffe. The big question
is "where do I go from GMail?"--I don't think I'm familiar enough
with the options for me to be comfortable making a recommendation
at this point..., and I'm wondering if maybe some of you can
provide some insight.

I remember hearing about fastmail.fm from my brother *years ago*,
and taking a look at them now... they look decent, I guess.
And they still exist, which I guess says something.
You can become an `actual customer' for about $5 per year,
which presumably means that they're actually serving you
as their primary interest. There's nothing about them that
says `don't trust them' to me; but I don't really know much
`positive' about them other than `I've never seen them
show up in the news for having screwed up'. Oh, and Opera Software
bought them some time back..., which doesn't mean anything
either positive or negative to me--should it?

lavabit.com looks... pretty serious. Their policies and promises
look (re)commendable. I'm a little confused by the `asymmetric
encryption using only a passphrase' bit in their explanation
of why my data would be safe with them, though (umm...?).
I also wonder if my friends would be able to handle a service
that can't reset their password for them if they forget it.

Maybe you guys can suggest other providers, or just provide
some thoughts on the two I've listed above.

I'm assuming that `someone who you actually pay for service
as an actual customer' is going to have to be part of my
recommendation, and that something on the order of $10
*per year* should actually reasonable to a normal person.

Thoughts...?

-- 
"Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr))))."