Re: [gentoo-user] Looking for other Seamonkey users

[Dan Egli]

On 4/6/2021 10:41 PM, Dale wrote:
> I've done some research.  It seems Dovecot is what I need.  It uses mbox
> and has some features I might need one day already where Courier doesn't
> but there isn't much difference really.  If anyone is curious, the
> comparison is here.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_mail_servers
>
> The biggest thing, mbox.  If I recall correctly that is what Seamonkey
> uses and I should be able to import those easy enough.  It at least
> gives me a head start.  Since this is a whole new deal, going to start a
> new thread if nobody pops up and says nooooooo to Dovecot.  I found a
> guide here:
>
Seamonkey is a web browser. Therefore, mbox vs maildir is meaningless to 
it. All it knows it it talks to the imap server and the imap server 
replies and sends a message.

Having said that, AVOID mbox like the plague! It is only a matter of 
time before mbox mail files get corrupted. Maildir is INFINITELY safer. 
And in the event of corruption in maildir, you loose ONLY the corrupted 
messages. Corrupt your mbox file and you're likely to loose the whole 
folder!

As far as moving from one to another, both mbox and maildir are 
standards. So if imap server X and Y both use Maildir, then swapping 
between them is easy, and POINTLESS, due to the fact that imap maintains 
the files on your server. So, if you move to a different mail CLIENT 
(thunderbird for example) then the new client only needs to take the 
time to re-download the messages from the server. It's the same way 
webmail and a client can work together. Neither is doing the actual work 
with the files. Each is only sending commands to a separate server 
program to work with the files.

> http://www.wikigentoo.ksiezyc.pl/Dovecot.htm
>
> So far, it is Gentoo based.  I found another one but it is Ubuntu
> based.  May work but commands are different.  Trying to go by a Gentoo
> based one.  If anyone has a better one, please share links.
>
> May start new thread in a day or so if no one shouts nooooo.
Consider this the shout. I can't stop you from using mbox, but I can 
shout at the top of my lungs that it's a BAD IDEA. And I can say over 
and over that changing your imap SERVER will have ZERO impact on what 
Seamonkey does. The only exception would be if you have a mail server 
(original or new) that doesn't fully follow the imap protocol. And in 
that case, who knows what the change will do.