Mark Rogers mark@quarella.co.uk wrote: [...]
If I wanted to run an IMAP server on my desktop as my mail store, though, I'm going to need some help. At present my mail client (TB) pulls the mail via POP3 from several servers, sorts into various folders, does basic (well weak) spam filtering, etc. It also allows me to easily create hierarchies of folders and move messages between them - those two points being things I've found difficult with IMAP in the past (but we're going back to when I last used Outlook Express.
Presumably I'm going to need fetchmail or similar for the mail collection, drop the anti-spam for now (unless it's easy to add something?) but how flexible is IMAP when it comes to folder handling?
IMAP is as flexible as its backend when it comes to folder handling. One can have private folders, shared folders and most client-server combinations do a reasonable implementation of hierarchies.
I question the presumption above, though. Simply replicating a typical POP3 power user model like the above with IMAP will miss out on several nice features. My favourite benefits of IMAP are:-
1. avoid wasting much download time and ADSL data transfer allowance on spam - mine is taken care of either by server-based Sieve rules, or by my mail client (Heirloom, which won't be to everyone's taste) deleting it without downloading it by using IMAP search commands. If the IMAP server is the desktop machine, this won't happen.
2. disconnected IMAP for when I'm travelling, but very few clients do that well.
3. read-anywhere - I think a STARTTLS-enabled IMAP server in a hosting facility is good for this, instead of a server on one's desktop.
I think those three make it worth biting the bullet and discontinuing use of most non-IMAP servers if you can, or setting up IMAP servers to collect and folder the email from the non-IMAP ones somehow.
Hope that helps,