MJ Ray wrote
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.
Thanks, that's good to know. Obviously only used rubbish IMAP servers in the past!
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.
Maybe, but there are some reasons for considering it; one of them being that I really should know much more about the server-side config of this stuff than I do, so learning on my own box makes sense.
My favourite benefits of IMAP are:-
- 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.
No it won't. I will likely migrate my personal domains to a server online which will do a lot of the spam checking before I get it, but for the reasons above I'd like to learn more about that at my desktop level first.
- disconnected IMAP for when I'm travelling, but very few clients do
that well.
I don't get about much :-)
- 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.
That said remote access to my desktop is not a big problem for me, and something I already use. Being able to access home email via IMAP rather than a remote X session to load up Thunderbird would be a benefit though.
Can anyone point me at fairly simple instructions for installing an IMAP server on an Ubuntu desktop? Or recommend a good imap server for this type of use? I think dovecot would be my default choice.