It's taken us something like 30 years to start seeing wide IPv6 adoption. Even then most a running dual stacks to still support IPv4. How long do you think it would take to have a secure email protocol running by most users?

It could probably happen quickly if a few big players came together and made the push. Unfortunately the only innovation in email these days is occurring in ways that help user lock-in. E.g. IMAP is stagnant, Gmail added 'dynamic emails' that only work in their ecosystem.

I'm all for reimagining the email system, but considering how wide spread email is right now I think the replacement might need to be at least partially compatible to allow interoperation during transition

The tech industry’s ‘reenvisioning’ of a free/cheap older, but universal, standard is usually to replace it with something expensive, proprietary, and limited in scope.

My hope is that it would be an open and free standard instead of some of the usual bullshit vendor lock in

When has that ever happened?

That's an extremely broad question. Are you asking specifically about email replacements, communication standards, or just proprietary software in general?

When has ever a “tech industry’s ‘reenvisioning’ of a free/cheap older, but universal, standard” resulted in “an open and free standard” and not “the usual bullshit vendor lock in”?

Never that I can think of, which is why I stated my hope that it wouldn't be like that. But maybe that just means we can't necessarily depend on a profit motivated corporation to do the 'reenvisioning'

Bingo. See also the rumored “definition of insanity”; i.e. doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result.

Basically anything? When was the last time something like email happened? And it wasn't a giant tech company that created that either.

Maybe something like Webrtc?

Can you elaborate on what you would like to see from a reimagined e-mail?