From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Apr 22 05:08:52 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CC03916A4CE for ; Thu, 22 Apr 2004 05:08:52 -0700 (PDT) Received: from internet.potentialtech.com (h-66-167-251-6.phlapafg.covad.net [66.167.251.6]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A37FD43D1F for ; Thu, 22 Apr 2004 05:08:52 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from potentialtech.com (pa-plum1c-102.pit.adelphia.net [24.53.179.102]) by internet.potentialtech.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id CCAE469A71; Thu, 22 Apr 2004 08:08:51 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <4087B532.7000702@potentialtech.com> Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 08:06:10 -0400 From: Bill Moran User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20031008 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Danny MacMillan References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: IMAP server and client recommendations? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 12:08:52 -0000 Danny MacMillan wrote: > Hello. > > I have six or seven hundred megabytes of email imprisoned in a few .pst > (Microsoft Outlook "Personal Folders") files. I've been looking for an > alternative email client lately. Of course, the issue is converting > these old messages so that they are usable by the new software -- > ideally so that multiple clients could access the mail. The thought > that immediately occurred to me was that one of the standard Unix > formats -- mbox or maildir -- would be appropriate for this task. > > After scouring the internet for possibilities for converting between the > hated .pst format and mbox or Maildir, I found a few people who'd > seemingly hit upon an ideal solution: add an IMAP folder to Outlook and > copy their mail to that folder, then do the reverse inside a client that > stores its mail in mbox or maildir format. Then it struck me -- > =leaving= the mail in the IMAP server would give me even more flexibility. > > Is it feasible to use the IMAP server as a mail storage solution like > this? Can anyone recommend a good IMAP server (for FreeBSD of course) > and give me some tips on considerations for choosing one? I blush to > say it, but I've never even had an IMAP account. First, I agree with you and others that this is a good way to go. Second, I just want to add one more choice to the list of excellent IMAP servers you might want to use: dovecot. I've found dovecot to be fast, and simple compared to other IMAP servers. Of course, the biggest problem with open source software is there are too many good choices :) -- Bill Moran Potential Technologies http://www.potentialtech.com