[svlug] IMAP client and server (& habits)

[Ivan Sergio Borgonovo]

Finally I moved to kubuntu amd64 (I'm already planning to go back 
to Debian, more questions later[*]).

Unfortunately my preferred email is unusable. Once it loads it 
crashes on everything I do.

I'm used to have a home imap server (available from outside too) 
+ fetchmail + procmail.

Advantages are:
- centralized filters, no need to configure each client
- I can read emails from every PC at home
- when I'm out mails can be accessed with different priority

Putting emails over NFS is NOT an option. Desktops generally use 
"unstable" software while server will use stable Debian.
IMAP operation are "atomic", NFS aren't.

Missing my preferred mua (sylpheed-claws-gtk2) I had to notice 
how few email clients support the "new mail" indicator when they 
have to deal with multiple folders and not just with the inbox.
Unless I'm missing something that makes imap pretty unusable.

Any suggestion? How can it be?
It seems that imap is very poorly supported among clients.

Rescanning an imap server for new mail (and new folders, if they 
are created on the fly by procmail) is a bit time consuming at 
least with uwimap... so I was starting to consider switching 
server too. A smooth transition could be dovecot since I can 
import my archive just copying mbox files.
mbox/mdir support (+ index) is another advantage since I can 
still use mutt over ssh and I don't have to have any server 
running to have access to my emails (just in case...).

But on a long term plan... I'd like to use centralized 
calendaring software... I think that to manage calendaring the 
imap server should support shared folders (and dovecot 
doesn't)... but that will come later...

[*] I think there are chances that it can be possible to install 
kde from the testing DVD in spite of using netinstall image and 
try to install kde from current state of repository... then once 
I've all the software I really need, change source.list to 
"unstable".

-- 
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
http://www.webthatworks.it